Jack Straw backs David Miliband

Alexander

Straw is a discredited "has been" - yesterday's man - who cares who he supports!

Frank P

So a has been backs a never will be? Who cares, apart from the cognoscenti of British Marxism?

PGTips

Of course David Miliband will win.

Lee Jakeman

"Say what you like about Straw — "
Don't mind if I do.
He's a weasel.

Aubrey Herbert

I know that it is tempting to look at the Labour leadership contest in the way of a choice as to which of Violet Trefusis or Vita Sackville-West was the more irrelevant of the Bloomsbury set. None of them is even a Sitwell, which is not saying much.

It is nevertheless important. Like it or not, years of benevolent welfarism have meant that the default voting option in the key electoral parts of this country will usually be for a reasonably convincing party of the left offering a benign form of watered down and huggable liberal socialism, with lots of hand outs for the needy, lashings of fair play and honest work for all.

Cameron has got this and is acting accordingly to the great regret of most of your readers, quite a few of your contributors and the odd ginger-haired columnist banging on in other newspapers, all of whom persist in the belief that it is only a question of time before the coalition collapse brings in a glorious new dawn of Conservatism.

If that were to have happened it would have been last May when we had the chance to make a clear choice between the discredited old and the untested new. The absence of a decision one way or the other, which is where coalitions come from, speaks to the state of our nation in a volume which causes a lot of traditional Conservatists to put their fingers in our ears and sing La La La in a variety of tunes.

The fact is that whichever Milliburnballs, however ridiculous and unfitted, wins the Labour Leadership has every chance of being the next Prime Minister. Some one as clever as Cameron knows this. It is as surprising that people criticise him for propping his Government up with a Liberal Democrat crutch as it is that they do not realise what will come next if he does not.

charles hercock

I admired his low cunning close up as our student leader in the 60's.However his rambling senility at his one and only question time makes me think he is finished. So brother Ed can take comfort

HampsteadOwl

I don't suppose there is any chance is there that Straw is backing Miliband D because he thinks he is the strongest candidate, has the brightest ideas for where to take the Labour Party and would make the best alternative prime minister for the country; rather than because he's the one most likely to win.

No, thought not.

AndyinBrum

What Aubrey Said

2trueblue

Not very flattering to either of them. Straw has all but withdrawn himself from the front line so he really is becoming an irrelevance.

The media will continue to bang on negatively about the coalition but hopefully it will continue to work to pave a secure recovery. Looking around the world economies we are not alone in our situation, but how we got there is different.

You can not have 8.2million people of working age economically inactive, plus a public sector that has grown out of all proportion to the rest of the economy, and have a vibrant sustainable economy. 'It's the economy, stupid', to use ? Clintons words. Liebore have always left us in the economic mire and that will not change. Their client base must change or even they will have no where to go.

We are all having to change and Liebore have ensured that those who did work hard to provide for their futures and their childrens are penalised more. They have left more poverty after 13yrs., a more divided society, and very poor foundations for our future. Thanks to the media we have pretty uninformed population. Like our politicians they have become 'tarts' looking for fame without substance. We have a generation who want to be famous without the basic skills to build a future and survive.

That is Liebores legacy. So who the Strawman supports is becoming an irrelevance, we need to educate our population for survival and working together.

TomTom

I wonder when Ted Castle regretted introducing Straw as a SpAd to Barbara ? I wonder how many LibDems think of the role he played as a SpAd in leaking about Jeremy Thorpe when Harold Wilson needed Liberal votes to stay in power ?

Straw is the kind of Apparatchik that grows fat on the rotting carcass of the political system. He has dynastic ambitions so no doubt it will continue to feed on the carcass

Nicholas

The concept of Straw "withdrawing" from front line politics is a bit like the concept of Adolf Hitler retiring quietly from public life in May 1945.

This odious weasel has already done his damage to our constitution, laws and justice. Like Prescott, he will now embrace the comforts of all he supposedly stood against in the stupendous hypocrisy that seems to afflict all the gobby idiots of the left. Whereas he rather deserves punishment.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Beware; This should be a wake-up call for the Body Politic. The brief remission has past and the carcinoma has become active once more, metastasis is becoming dangerous. The Tories must apply strong medicine NOW.

ollie

It's obvious the dreadful Miliband snr will win. But I do not see him ever becoming PM. The mess we are in now would be revisited with interest by a guy who would make Marx blush.