Deputy Leadership
For interest, is there anyone who has decided to support any of the Deputy Leadership candidates based on receiving one of their e-mails or Facebook messages? I find the spam e-mails actively annoying, and I think there might be lessons here for future e-campaigning [it is not really clever and down with the kidz to send lots of stupid e-mails or messages to voters, and it doesn't make them more likely to vote for you].
Grumbling aside, I intend to vote to support candidates who are attempting to appeal to lefties by saying New Labour woz wrong about stuff and they woz wrong to vote for it. I know I should be complaining about how they are all careerists and will just betray and disappoint me if elected (with special bile and vitriol for those who are making arguments closest to what I believe), but I can't be bothered with that, and I actively want people who are trying to make their career in the Labour Party to believe that the best way to do so is to say leftie stuff. There is extra credit for people who have been saying leftie stuff for longer as opposed to those who have just started in the past couple of weeks. I don't think, for instance, it is admirable and consistent to still be supporting the war on Iraq - I think it is stupid and lacking in judgement.
Part of the dilemma is that the people who I think are best at appealing to the wider public (Alan Johnson and Hilary Benn), are also those who seem least interested in campaigning or in pandering to my leftie prejudices. I've talked a bit to people who are former Labour supporters whose support we will want to win back next time, and they don't seem very interested in the deputy leadership election except when I say Hazel Blears might win when they look frightened and start asking about who might have the best chance of preventing this from happening.
So my order for voting (at this moment, and subject to change according to whim) is:
Cruddas 1
Harman 2
Benn 3
Johnson 4
Hain 5
Blears 6
[Probably Peter Hain should go above Benn & Johnson according to the above criteria, but I don't really understand the voting system and I want to vote tactically to try to stop Hazel Blears. Also, I don't actually want Peter Hain to be Deputy Leader because that would obviously be a terrible idea.]
posted by donpaskini @ 11:33 am
8 Comments
8 Comments:
I agree with you entirely-ish, and my preferencing is very similar.
Where I disagree is the war. A bit like your Green Party dig, its not very productive to slag everyone off who says the war was a mistake as stupid. The tragedy is not enough people opposed the war at the time.
I want the Labour Party led by a coalition of people of either thought the war was wrong at the time, or have since come to realise it.
I was trying to say that everyone who still *supports* the war is stupid/lacking in judgement, and am giving credit to, not slagging off, people who thought it was wrong at the time (though this applies to none of the candidates) or have changed their minds since (which appears to apply to two of them).
sorry if i misread on my lunch break
How about looking at their leftie deeds rather than their leftie words? Hilary Benn has helped ensure that Britain is one of only two rich nations that has met (actually exceeded) its obligations in International Development.
Words come cheap, action takes determination...
Oh come off it! International Development is a relatively easy job, all you have to do is hand out money to starving Africans. Anyway, since Blair personally prioritised Africa (and Brown has had a lot to do with it too) many years ago I don't see how anyone can try to give sole credit to Mr Wedgie Benn Jr!
And all good lefties should try to find out which businessmen are funding Benn's campaign before they enthuse over him. Though he'll probably still get my second or third preference.
Benn isn't a candidate of the left...I'm supporting him!
But then he isn't a candidate of the right - Dennis Skinnler is supporting him!
Let's be clear - Benn's value is his transparent honesty and straightforwardness.
It would be really easy for Benn to have this election sown up if only he'd made a few sopps to the left - but he's got the integrity to accept that he was a member of the government throughout the war etc and he visibly (you can see him agonise over it on t' telly) just can't bear to do the dirty on his colleagues by washing his hands of it.
Contrast that with Harman's "New Labour,who, me?" act on Newsnight (I know a lot of very leftwing people who were truly appalled by her behaviour) where without blinking an eye she was prepared to just waltz off to claim a patch of as she saw it unoccupied political territory (lefty woman - New Labour woman being transparently preferable Hazel) despite never, ever, at all, having ushered a peep in all of a decade in government.
At least Hain has the decency to go off on one from time to time to appeal to the left - Harriet's was some sort of Damascene conversion - on the road to 4th place in the deputy contest.
What's worse is that 20 years ago she genuinely was a bit left - and she beat that out of herself to get on in the Blair era.
People want trust and integrity - she's shown little if any on this.
My preference order
Benn 1
Johnson 2
Cruddas 3
Blears 4
Harman 5
Hain(urgh) 6
pickles
Left and right unite: keep the perma-tan out.
I'm split between
1 Cruddas
2 Johnson
3 Blears
4 Benn
5 Harman
7 Hain
or
1 Cruddas
2 Johnson
3 Benn
4 Blears
5 Harman
8 Hain
"I intend to vote to support candidates who are attempting to appeal to lefties by saying New Labour woz wrong about stuff and they woz wrong to vote for it. I know I should be complaining about how they are all careerists and will just betray and disappoint me if elected (with special bile and vitriol for those who are making arguments closest to what I believe), but I can't be bothered with that"
My thinking exactly.
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