Ever since Ed Miliband stepped down from the party leadership, Labour have been looking within themselves to find someone, anyone, to take another crack at the Conservatives in 2020. Not an easy job. Those with experience are too often associated with the taint of the Blair or Brown governments. Those without too easily fall into the same political class that has seen voter apathy jump up, if it could be arsed, like.
We are now down to four candidates.
Liz Kendall, the first to declare, probably needs to check the colour of her badge. For me, her sole purpose is to go after ABC1ās, and convince Tory voters that Labour can play the same game, which I suppose makes sense in a way, but seems utterly pointless in others. I donāt know what the point of her is, really.
Yvette Cooper seems to be just as vulnerable to the political weirdo tag as Ed Miliband. Sheās robotic, doesnāt come across well and married Ed Balls. The Murdoch press will rip her to bits through that connection. Morons will lap it up.
Think Andy Burnham is probably the best āmainstreamā chance Labour have of getting elected. Despite a few early makeup mishaps on QT, he acquitted himself well during the Hillsborough investigations.
My fave though, is Jeremy Corbyn. I think he has every chance of winning the contest, but little chance of winning the nation over in our political environment. Shame. He has a habit of speaking up on issues the rest of the Parliamentary party wonāt touch, such as Palestine, and is the only candidate running on an anti-austerity platform.
Im not sure it will make a difference who they pick - Labour feel like the Tories did when they finally came out of power - rudderless - They will need a disappointment or two more before they grasp whatever nettles they need to.
Thatās my concern too, and itās a shame, because although heās not as electable as Burnham, he is the sort of character that could give the Labour Party its soul back. If he can build a defensible anti-austerity platform and sell it to the public, things could get interesting. Deep down though, heās the sort of chap that appeals to political geeks like me. His oratory is going to need to improve if he fancies preaching beyond the converted.
Corbyn wonāt win - he only just managed to scrape together the 35 nominations. Itās good that heāll be able to get some sort of hearing for an anti-Austerity line though. Iād guess Burnham or Kendall will win.
Labourās big problem seems to be Scotland. The lines about appealing to so-called āaspirationalā voters in the South (as if voters in the north arenāt aspirational) has come out every time Labour has lost an election since Thatcher. This time however it canāt be taken for granted that Scotland and the north will support Labour like in the Blair years. Instead of having to win a few marginals from the Tories Labour start with a deficit of 40+ seats in Scotland - and having Liz Kendall as leader isnāt going to help win those back. I think Labour in Scotland could well split from the UK party if Kendall wins
Bit of news on this front. Unite have indicated that Corbyn is their man, indicating that Burnham is their second preference. As a Corbyn fan, this pleases me, but I do worry that support from the unions is something of an double-edged sword.
I think it is about time for a lady labour leader! I need to read up on them all though. But if they are the leading candidates one of them must have the ability.
This is the classic split moment, Corbyn for a true socialist but unelectable labour or Burnham who is yet again middle ground and not left enough, will he even appeal to southern labour? The lack of choice and lack credible shadow backbenchers is what you get with PPE graduates and right on short lists, merit first nothing else matters.
This is the classic split moment, Corbyn for a true socialist but unelectable labour or Burnham who is yet again middle ground and not left enough, will he even appeal to southern labour? The lack of choice and lack credible shadow backbenchers is what you get with PPE graduates and right on short lists, merit first nothing else matters.
Labour should bite the bullet and split, the brave ones are the people who have formed other leftist parties but know they wonāt get elected, TUSC etc, they wonāt the careerist bastards just look at the backtrack on the vote for Europe, worse than the tories for power.
Well you must live down the road from me. We voted in Catherine West in our constituency. Iāve seen him speak a few times and feel he stands for what I would vote for but agree that he probably wont have mass appeal.
My mum met all the last set of Labour leader candidates and said that Ed was the most genuine out of them all whilst the others were a bit too shiny and polished politicians. I think thatās what people want so Burnham is likely the leader in that. My mum felt that he was her second choice after Ed. Which may not be a good thing considering what happen to Ed!