Who will be the next leader of the labour party ?

[Gringo]

I refuse to even read, never mind post on this thread as it's just a complete rip off of this more authentic and better thought out poll.

Yah boo

[Gringo]

PS Andy Burnham - just a Mark Oaten waiting to happen,

[tonyh29]

I refuse to even read, never mind post on this thread as it's just a complete rip off of this more authentic and better thought out poll.

your poll sucks and I faked my vote on it anyway , in fact I faked my vote on ALL your polls

[piav_k4]

I wander what price you'd get down the bookies on Blair...

[ianrobo1]

not being an MP very very long

[Gringo]

I refuse to even read, never mind post on this thread as it's just a complete rip off of this more authentic and better thought out poll.

your poll sucks and I faked my vote on it anyway , in fact I faked my vote on ALL your polls

YOU WILL BURN IN INTERNET HELL WHEN THE GREAT GOD DNS DESTROYS YOUR BEING. YOU ARE PWNED.

[Gringo]

I wander what price you'd get down the bookies on Blair...

Hey I tipped Blair on here before xmas. Ol Red Eyes is back.....

not being an MP very very long

And obviously some have a very short memory.

All ex PMs get made a lord (or in femal cases a witch) and put in the house of lords.

THe office of PM can be held by any sitting member, whether it be the commons or the lords.

Ol red eyes is back.....

[snowychap]

I refuse to even read, never mind post on this thread as it's just a complete rip off of this more authentic and better thought out poll.

your poll sucks and I faked my vote on it anyway , in fact I faked my vote on ALL your polls

YOU WILL BURN IN INTERNET HELL WHEN THE GREAT GOD DNS DESTROYS YOUR BEING. YOU ARE PWNED.

He he he.

Internet fight! :winkold:

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

[snowychap]

I tell you what - if Moribund junior wishes to go any further in politics then he needs to get some new facial expressions for interviews on the telly.

It is no good saying 'times are tough' with a juvenile smirk across your chops (see newsnight tonight).

[nrogers]

Does it really matter, they are still going to be unelectable, come the GE.

[nrogers]

Edit

[bubbadog]

How about Jon Cruddas, came second in the voting for Deputy Leader, but that was at a time when all labour lemmings were following Brown.

Would make a refreshing change, not afraid to face up to Labours mistakes and is easily a match for Cameron when it comes to debate. Media friendly too!!!

[AshVilla]

am i the only one who thinks Jack straw looks like a scarecrow?

[Condimentalist]

Well, we saw how much support Miliband.D had from the Blairites before Brown took over. I think it's his - if, of course, he wants it...

[mjmooney]

am i the only one who thinks Jack straw looks like a scarecrow?

Jack Straw looks like The Demon Headmaster.

Rubbish claim to fame: David Milliband went to the same school as my daughters - AND his dad (Raplh) taught me politics at University.

[snowychap]

Jackie Ashley, writing in the Grauniad, seems to be pretty sure that Labour needs a new leader:

Labour needs a new leader - even if that means a coup

Ministers must now act ruthlessly. The party lacks direction, and the public has already made up its mind about Brown

Only one thing is clear. It's over for Gordon. His family aside, I may be the last person in the country to admire and like him. However much mockery it calls down - deep breath - this is a decent, uncorrupt, highly intelligent and serious man with good values, inspired by public service. I'd hoped he also had enough of an instinct for leadership to make him a successful prime minister. I was wrong.

But if it's sad for Gordon Brown, it's a disaster for the Labour government. For nothing else about this mess is clear. Ahead, there churns dangerous, unpredictable water. In this storm, nothing should be discounted. The union is challenged. Labour's future is threatened. We have had two-party politics throughout my lifetime. But parties are voter-made and temporary things, not natural or eternal. Brown's case for staying is now that the bloodshed and mayhem which a leadership contest might involve would be even worse; things are bad now, but just you wait. This was right in the past. But it is wrong now, and it's important to spell out why.

First of all, he has lost so much loyalty and authority that he cannot rebuild his position. He's not cutting through to the voters. No 10 has become a vipers' nest, with one half briefing against the other - which partly explains the many PR gaffes. I've spoken to too many people who have been on the receiving end of his famous rages - three senior ministers say they have never been spoken to like that before. There have been too many despairing reports of poor political judgment. In the Glasgow campaign, his office blamed John Reid, now chairman of Celtic, for failing to bring his football team out in support of Labour. This was crazy, first because it infuriated Reid and the Blairites, second because it tried to shift the blame, and third because anyone who knows Glasgow and football (and Brown knows both) should realise you never, ever, claim the support of just Celtic or just Rangers.

This is a small example, but there are so many others. Is the Brown camp right in saying that a leadership coup would make things worse? Certainly, nobody should underestimate the capacity of Labour MPs for fumbling and fouling up.

One leading Blairite says of stories that Jack Straw and Geoff Hoon are preparing to tell Brown that it is all over: "They've never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Everyone is asking everyone else to do it - people keep coming up to us and saying, when are you going to get rid of him? It's for the cabinet to do it - yet they haven't a backbone between them."

That is brutal. But at some basic level, most ministers seem almost physically scared of Brown. They talk about killing the king but still find themselves dropping their eyes in his presence. And once they start, political assassinations are rarely clean. It is still not impossible that Brown will stand down on his own initiative. Everyone says he never would, but he has to send out that message until five minutes before he announces he's going. That would, candidly, be the best thing. But assuming he doesn't do this, the cabinet plot has to come to a ruthless climax, with such numbers involved that the prime minister has no choice. As the Tories discovered when Thatcher was ousted, a coup will produce inflamed emotions that take years to cool.

Making things more complicated still, there is no obvious replacement. It seems incredible that, say, David Miliband would politely fall in behind, say, Jack Straw. So, after a coup, there would be a contest. Who is in? Jack Straw? James Purnell? Ed Balls? Harriet Harman? Alan Johnson? Jon Cruddas? All of them have a good claim to being considered. A contest will take time and money, during which, presumably, the country will feel a bit leaderless and David Cameron can make increasingly outraged demands for a general election. How can this be a good idea?

Well, let's unpick it. We have to start with the strong likelihood that Labour is heading not for defeat, but for meltdown. Ministers still in their 30s and 40s face spending most of their best adult years in the misery of opposition. And if they don't move first, they will be forced to, by ordinary Labour MPs for equally basic reasons. One Labour worker, who has decided not to go for a seat, put it like this: being an MP is the "best self-employed job there is; it's like running a small business and you make of it what you want to. But there are now more than 100 small business people whose businesses are going bust with no prospect of good alternative employment. They are the people who will move against Gordon."

Not only will there be a contest, there should be a contest. The real reason for Labour's dire predicament is not just Brown's leadership. It is that, after more than a decade of New Labour, nobody in the party knows what it stands for. Is it New Labour, old Labour, real Labour or none of the above? The party desperately needs a debate about its future direction, with Progress, Compass, ultra-Blairites, leftwing trade unions and everyone else putting their tuppence in. Only after that can the party make up its mind about where to go. Read the differing analyses of what is wrong with Labour now, and you find wildly divergent solutions. New Labour was a brilliant but unstable coalition of interests, but the cracks can no longer be papered over.

True, the public won't like a leadership battle while the country is struggling with economic downturn. But frankly, many people think the country is rudderless now. So the balance of risk has changed. It is more dangerous to drift on with frozen smiles and crossed fingers than it is to act. It would be essential to promise a general election by, say, next autumn to allow people to give their verdict on a new leader as soon as he had a chance to settle in. But I fear the public has made up its mind about Brown, and that's that.

Labour ministers are doing themselves terrible harm by saying nothing interesting during this paralysing period. "It's all Gordon's fault," seems to be the underlying story. "Let him take the blame this time." But if there is a nasty decision to be taken, they need to take it, and start to talk real politics to the country, rather than pulling up the drawbridge and pretending all is well.

I'm not certain that another leader will win Labour the next election. After 11 years in power, things have deteriorated too far. But another leader could stem the bleeding and limit the damage. Poor Gordon. It's not only his fault. But politics, as he knows well, is an unsentimental trade.

[mjmooney]

They're going to lose the next election anyway, so they'd do better to keep Brown on as the sacrificial lamb, THEN elect a new leader (probably Milliband). That way the new guy starts with a clean slate, not having lost an election already.

In the meantime, get ready for "The Eighties - the remake", starring David Cameron as Margaret Thatcher, and John McCain as Ronald Reagan.

[snowychap]

In the meantime, get ready for "The Eighties - the remake", starring David Cameron as Margaret Thatcher, and John McCain as Ronald Reagan.

Not a pleasant thought.

Can't see the McCain part being true, though.

[Jon]

They're going to lose the next election anyway, so they'd do better to keep Brown on as the sacrificial lamb, THEN elect a new leader (probably Milliband). That way the new guy starts with a clean slate, not having lost an election already.

In the meantime, get ready for "The Eighties - the remake", starring David Cameron as Margaret Thatcher, and John McCain as Ronald Reagan.

I don't think Green Dave is anywhere near as far right as Mrs T, Mike!?

Also, i don't think he is a conviction or idealistic politician. I think he will pander to populist tastes and public opinion, as he really doesn't have an ideology as such.

he has no Conservative Vision. His thinking seems to be, continue as is, but be more popular than Labour.

Also, I hope Chips gets fried. I'd rather raise a glass to Barack "Brahma" Obama

[mjmooney]

They're going to lose the next election anyway, so they'd do better to keep Brown on as the sacrificial lamb, THEN elect a new leader (probably Milliband). That way the new guy starts with a clean slate, not having lost an election already.

In the meantime, get ready for "The Eighties - the remake", starring David Cameron as Margaret Thatcher, and John McCain as Ronald Reagan.

I don't think Green Dave is anywhere near as far right as Mrs T, Mike!?

Also, i don't think he is a conviction or idealistic politician. I think he will pander to populist tastes and public opinion, as he really doesn't have an ideology as such.

he has no Conservative Vision. His thinking seems to be, continue as is, but be more popular than Labour.

Also, I hope Chips gets fried. I'd rather raise a glass to Barack "Brahma" Obama

Well I hope you're right on all counts.