HEADLESS CHICKENS SHOOTING THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT - 2
David Aaronovitch is on the ball. I think I'm a Milibandite too, incidentally, though I can't see David M making it to Number Ten quite yet. Little-known fact: he used to turn out for the Tribune cricket team. Miliband, that is, not Aaronovitch.
6 comments:
Gregg
said...
Given that, so far, the two most prominent individuals to declare their support for Miliband as the next leader are Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone, I think if he actually did run, he could not only win but win as a candidate of the entire party.
Apart from that, the article is another commentary on the "coup" that re-writes history, ignores the Blairites' shennanigans that prompted the Brownites to act, and mutters about how the press is ignoring the silent majority's support of Tony Blair (now polling as both the least popular PM and the least popular Labour leader since polling began).
Aaro: "I am, I think, a Milibandite — partly because it sounds like something from the Cretaceous period, and partly because there are two Milibands, and that gives me wriggle room."
I was a Milibandite once myself. But now, sadly, there are only two Milibands.
Gregg - Benn and Livingstone backing the boy David? Are you sure about this? But I don't think the party membership would play ball - I had a long argument recently with an active Labour member whose starting-point was that Michael Meacher wasn't a credible leadership candidate because he was 'tainted with Bennism', and they maintained throughout that they were on the Left of the party as it is now.
It wouldn't be altogether surprising if Benn and Livingstone backed David M (who has, incidentally, said that he's not up for either the leadership or the deputy leadership). They both know him since he was a nipper. I think he helped Benn out organising his archive and worked at one of the GLC's policy units during his university hols...
It has been said that: "Ralph Miliband devoted his life to making the theoretical case for the proposition that Labour has nothing to offer the working class. David Miliband has devoted his life to proving it."
Is it just me, or is one of the most delightful and heart warming passages in the latest Benn diaries the afternoon when TB and RM meet up and commiserate with each other on how right wing their sons are? I at least always feel like laughing out loud when I read that entry ...
You seem to be implying that it is not possible to be on the left of the party while at the same time thinking that the activities of Tony Benn and his supporters did huge damage to the party in the 1980s.
I've always struggled to believe that Benn wasn't in the pay of the Tories. His promotion of mandatable MPs seemed calculated to turn the Labour Party into an incoherent mess. His public pronouncements seemed designed to appeal to the infantilism of some sections of the left at the same time as being embarrasing to the broad swathe of his own party - left and right.
'Tainted by Bennism' is a good enough reason to ignore anyone, as far as I can see,
6 comments:
Given that, so far, the two most prominent individuals to declare their support for Miliband as the next leader are Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone, I think if he actually did run, he could not only win but win as a candidate of the entire party.
Apart from that, the article is another commentary on the "coup" that re-writes history, ignores the Blairites' shennanigans that prompted the Brownites to act, and mutters about how the press is ignoring the silent majority's support of Tony Blair (now polling as both the least popular PM and the least popular Labour leader since polling began).
Aaro: "I am, I think, a Milibandite — partly because it sounds like something from the Cretaceous period, and partly because there are two Milibands, and that gives me wriggle room."
I was a Milibandite once myself. But now, sadly, there are only two Milibands.
Gregg - Benn and Livingstone backing the boy David? Are you sure about this? But I don't think the party membership would play ball - I had a long argument recently with an active Labour member whose starting-point was that Michael Meacher wasn't a credible leadership candidate because he was 'tainted with Bennism', and they maintained throughout that they were on the Left of the party as it is now.
It wouldn't be altogether surprising if Benn and Livingstone backed David M (who has, incidentally, said that he's not up for either the leadership or the deputy leadership). They both know him since he was a nipper. I think he helped Benn out organising his archive and worked at one of the GLC's policy units during his university hols...
Hang on. Hasn't Benn endorsed McDonnell? He was on the platform at the official campaign launch in Manchester last week.
It has been said that:
"Ralph Miliband devoted his life to making the theoretical case for the proposition that Labour has nothing to offer the working class. David Miliband has devoted his life to proving it."
Is it just me, or is one of the most delightful and heart warming passages in the latest Benn diaries the afternoon when TB and RM meet up and commiserate with each other on how right wing their sons are? I at least always feel like laughing out loud when I read that entry ...
Phil,
You seem to be implying that it is not possible to be on the left of the party while at the same time thinking that the activities of Tony Benn and his supporters did huge damage to the party in the 1980s.
I've always struggled to believe that Benn wasn't in the pay of the Tories. His promotion of mandatable MPs seemed calculated to turn the Labour Party into an incoherent mess. His public pronouncements seemed designed to appeal to the infantilism of some sections of the left at the same time as being embarrasing to the broad swathe of his own party - left and right.
'Tainted by Bennism' is a good enough reason to ignore anyone, as far as I can see,
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