Norman Lamb has the prized Dappy endorsement.

That Dappy? I'd be very surprised if he has even heard of Norman Lamb :o

That Dappy? I'd be very surprised if he has even heard of Norman Lamb :o

 

Dappy @TheDappy · 8h 8 hours ago

I'm backing @NormanLamb to become leader of the Liberal Democrats and help put power back in the hands of individuals http://backnorman.co.uk

Methinks Tristram Hunt may have blown his chances on Question Time tonight with a rather poor performance.

Don't think he had much of a chance anyway, but I agree a very mixed bag from him there - also annoyed that not a single panelist even gave a name for the best potential leader :lol:.

I sincerly hope Tristram Hunt ruined his chances, he symbolises everything Labour currently DONT need at the minute.

 

As Stan Collymore said during it on twitter thats whats wrong with labour at the minute a man named Tristram is the MP for STOKE!

 

I have also realised I didnt add Mary creagh into the original poll for fear of her changing us into a light blue conservative party forever but shes just announced shes standing this morning bravely putting her vision in this mornings Daily Mail, start as you mean to go on is what i say....

Edited May 15, 201510 yr by steve201

Chuka GONE :o

 

What's supposed to be 'Tory' about Mary Creagh? She's fairly soft left. Writing in the Daily Mail doesn't make you a Tory - if anything reaching out to the kinds of people who haven't heard a Labour argument unfiltered in years is *exactly* what you should be doing if you've just lost an election by 100 seats.

Ive just taken a disliking to her since i first saw her in the past 5 years or so. Most of what she had to say was either boring, wonky or blairite imo own opinion and i cant imagine her being charismatic at all as a leader.

 

Saw Chukkas staement on the New Statesman there - he didnt like the scrutiny? Wonder whos found out what about him lol.

Edited May 15, 201510 yr by steve201

Apparently it's all coming out in the Sundays.

So there is something?! Lookin forward to this, ive gone of him alot since he was elected mp!

Chuka GONE :o

 

What's supposed to be 'Tory' about Mary Creagh? She's fairly soft left. Writing in the Daily Mail doesn't make you a Tory - if anything reaching out to the kinds of people who haven't heard a Labour argument unfiltered in years is *exactly* what you should be doing if you've just lost an election by 100 seats.

 

It might not be Tory to write in the Daily Mail, but there's something definitely Tory about accepting the right-wing argument that spending money on public services for the poor is evil and should never be done. Not to mention that she just spouts the usual meaningless platitudes which people (swing voters most of all) hate most about politicians, like Liz Kendall does.

Edited May 15, 201510 yr by Danny

It might not be Tory to write in the Daily Mail, but there's something definitely Tory about accepting the right-wing argument that spending money on public services for the poor is evil and should never be done. Not to mention that she just spouts the usual meaningless platitudes which people (swing voters most of all) hate most about politicians, like Liz Kendall does.

On election morning I received an email from a small business owner in Hove. 'If your lot do win today, please don't annihilate the private sector and economy.'

 

I was horrified, but I got a premonition of what was about to happen. It was his voice, the voice of middle England, that spoke on May 7 and delivered our thumping defeat.

 

Tomorrow I am launching my bid to be the leader of the Labour Party. I want to earn back the trust that Middle England has lost in the Labour Party.

 

We forgot the hard-learned lessons of our last three election victories; that to win elections a party needs to offer hope.

 

Labour didn't just lose Middle England last week. We lost Scotland and our industrial heartlands as well.

 

I want to earn back the trust that Scotland has lost in the Labour Party where people were angry and felt that Westminster politics wasn't working for them.

 

I want to earn back the trust of the people who voted Ukip because their communities have been hit hard by globalisation, immigration and loss of manufacturing industries.

 

They sent a clear message: all Westminster politicians look and sound the same. Politics as usual is not the answer.

 

Labour lost the General Election because people did not trust us with the economy. Our campaign message focused almost exclusively on the NHS, an emotive issue for many of us, but in the end, not people's main motivation for voting.

 

People felt that Labour didn't understand their aspiration to earn money and provide a better life for their family.

 

People trust Labour to look after their schools, hospitals and council services. But they simply do not trust us to run the economy and make them better off. That must change.

 

The country needs strong Labour voices in Parliament to hold this government to account. I defeated the government's crazy plan to sell off England's forests, and got the government to cap the rail fare rises that were crippling commuters.

 

And I also spoke up for the parents from my children's school playground and across the country, when we discovered the supermarkets had sold us horsemeat.

 

The Conservatives plan major changes to some of the most cherished British institutions - the NHS, our public services and the BBC.

 

They are risking British jobs and investment with their EU referendum. They want devolution for some of our big cities, but have no plans for England's towns and counties. They are giving power to some people, but not to everyone. That's not right.

 

The Labour Party needs a leader who will bring people together to learn the lessons of our defeat and create a vision of the country we know we can be.

 

We want our country united, forward-looking, confident, and proud not fearful, introspective and insular. We want a country where aspiration and compassion go hand in hand. A country for everybody.

 

My mum and dad settled in Coventry, from Northern Ireland and Ireland. They worked hard to provide us with a secure and loving home during the huge recession of the 1980s which hit our community hard.

 

They instilled in us a drive to make the best of ourselves. Hard work. Fair play. A desire to get on and to give your children the chance for a better life. I have the same hopes for my own children. That hope is denied to too many parents in Wakefield, anxious about the state of Britain and worried by insecure wages.

 

I want to live in a country which embraces the future and leads the world. Britain needs to be a high-skill, high-wage economy to win in the global race.

 

I spent ten years working with small businesses at an enterprise agency and Cranfield School of Management. I know that the UK's five million innovative small businesses, start-ups and self-employed tradesmen and women are the backbone of our economy. We want people to come and invest here and create the jobs of the future. Ten years ago the gaming, digital and renewable industries were in their infancy.

 

The jobs our children will do have not yet been invented. Our education system must rise to that challenge. We have world-class universities and a health sector which put us at the cutting edge of innovation in biotech. We need to win the race to the top for our economy, not the race to the bottom.

 

This election has shown how divided our nation is. Now is not a time for Labour to retreat from the world but to unite and build the future we need where compassion and economic competence go hand in hand.

 

I hope Daily Mail and MailOnline readers will join our debate.

 

Yep, if there's one thing I got from that, it was really an overwhelming sense she thinks spending money on public services is evil and should never be done.

Yep, if there's one thing I got from that, it was really an overwhelming sense she thinks spending money on public services is evil and should never be done.

 

Didn't she say Labour spent too much?

 

And seriously, find me one thing in that article or anything Liz Kendall has said that a Tory wouldn't happily say. Who in their right mind would ever disagree with "wanting to help people get on in life" or "embracing the challenges of the future"?

Edited May 15, 201510 yr by Danny

I don't think you'll be getting many Labour figures saying society is too tolerant. The goalposts have been shifted again.

Actually, part of me hopes Creagh or Kendall gets it. The complete and utter carcrash they would be might finally get the Blairite virus out of the party's system once and for all.

 

The worst thing would be Yvette Cooper since she would be another Miliband who would tread water and fudge things for 5 years: not good enough to come close to winning, but not quite obviously bad enough to bring about a moment of reckoning.

Edited May 15, 201510 yr by Danny

Bizarrely, there is a campaign to get Keir Starmer (elected for the first time last week and a former Director Of Public Prosecutions) to stand. Perhaps the best bet, in his case, would be for someone like Creagh to lead the party and make Starmer Shadow Justice Secretary to oppose the attempt to repeal the Human Rights Act. The contrast between hi,m and Gove (who has no legal training whatsoever) should be massive. If Creagh's leadership proves to be as bad as some people suspect, she can then stand down after a couple years. By then, Starmer might be a stronger contender.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/m...arty-leadership

 

There is one potential massive spanner on the works. There are signs that the Tories want to hold their EU referendum next year. That is a massively optimistic timetable for a renegotiation, but it allows for the fact that there is a French Presidential election and a German Parliamentary election in 2017. Therefore, France and Germany may want to avoid negotiations going into 2017.

 

Let's say the referendum goes ahead in autumn 2016. Cameron may decide that that is a suitable time for him to step down. Assuming the party has not split in the course of the renegotiation / referendum process, he may think that is the best way to concentrate minds and avoid a post-referendum split. A new leader (whether Boris Johnson or A N Other) could decide to repeal the Fixed Term Parliament Act to allow for an election in 2017. If that happens, Labour will have very limited opportunity to replace their leader.

This article makes much more sense than any of the puff pieces I've read about "aspiration":

 

Labour’s emotional illiteracy: the party need to abandon the language of hellfire and damnation

 

Anecdotally, it's definitely true that people get really turned off by all the talk about how Labour are the only ones who are morally pure and all the rest are evil baby-eaters. It's not even that it makes Labour look "left-wing", it just makes them look like a weird religious cult.

Edited May 15, 201510 yr by Danny

Let's say the referendum goes ahead in autumn 2016.

 

 

Farage said on QT that he thinks it'll be in just a year's time, next May. He could be right.

Guy from the Mirror was on Sky earlier saying he suspected the real reason Chuka withdrew was because he was struggling to get enough nominations to get through to the next round. In fact, he claimed "most" MPs he'd spoken to were backing Burnham and that even Yvette Cooper might struggle to get through.

 

Edited May 15, 201510 yr by Danny

Chuka. Chuka gone. Let me hold you let me love you chuka. I feel for you.

 

Or was that Chaka? For some reason I always thought he was probably single. Which I see as a good thing and he prob could have stayed in the running.

 

Andy Burnham walkover?

Rooting for Yvette!