Old Labour, New Labour – or just Same Labour?
Peter Hoskin 10:11am
Whatever happened to Peter Mandelson's regard for Ed Miliband? A year-and-a-half ago,
the Ennobled One was thought to have marked out
MiliE as a future Labour leader. But, today, he pulls out the verbal chainsaw and sets about tearing him down. The younger Miliband, Mandelson implies in an interview with the Times (£), would lead Labour into an "electoral cul-de-sac," because, "to suggest that
we should be concentrating on our core current voters … is by way of saying that we want to remain a minority party." And, just in case we didn't get the message, he adds: "we're
not looking for a preacher as our leader." Although Mandelson doesn't say as much, it all adds up to an endorsement for the other Miliband brother.
As Tim Montgomerie suggests over at ConservativeHome, the support of Peter Mandelson is a mixed blessing, just as his opposition is a mixed curse. With the wounds caused by his memoirs still fresh on the Labour psyche, these subsequent interventions could just do the opposite of what's intended and harden support for Ed Miliband. But that's not to say that they should be disregarded – by Team Ed or by anyone else. Mandelson's diagnosis slices through to perhaps the biggest problem with the MiliE campaign: his failure to build what looks like a consensus across the party. Whereas David Miliband has courted the likes of Jon Cruddas, there is little outward sense that Ed Miliband has done much to keep the party's right on board with his left-leaning project.
The biggest loser from all this, though, is probably Labour as a whole. The line-up of leadership candidates never really promised a complete break from the past 13 years. But so long as Mandelson and the rest of the Old Crowd keep waltzing onto the stage, with their talk of Old Labour and of New Labour, then the more it looks like the worst option of all: Same Labour.
Previous
Alex
August 30th, 2010 10:25am Report this commentSame Labour = Incompotent Labour
Walsingham's Ghost
August 30th, 2010 10:42am Report this commentWhere on earth was that photograph taken - Madame Tussauds?...
Tarka the Rotter
August 30th, 2010 11:07am Report this commentHere's a plea from the heart...
Please please please can you stop giving Lord Fondlebum of Boy oxygen? It was bad enough when Liebore were in power, now they are not (well... not officially but the emulsion job is wearing thin, I grant you) so please can we ignore him?
Baron
August 30th, 2010 11:15am Report this commenthaven’t we had enough of this man?
TrevorsDen
August 30th, 2010 11:17am Report this commentBut maybe the Miliband's are just playing good cop bad cop. Maybe they have a secret filial agreement.
So that when D. wins he can appoint E. to be Chancellor (and leader in waiting) and so called custodian of the left and between the duopoly they will run the Labour Party as their family fiefdom for the next 30 years.
Maybe there is no difference maybe its a fix and a con. After all the Labour Party have fallen for this before.
alexsandr
August 30th, 2010 11:22am Report this commentWhy does anyone care what these yesterdays men say and think?
Dont give them the oxygen of publicity.
Move on......
normanc
August 30th, 2010 11:40am Report this commentLabour would be foolish to go with a left wing leader to shore up support amongst their core voters.
Labour are in an extremely advantageous position. I read articles saying that the Coalition could sound the death knell for Labour. I think this is very shortsighted.
Disillusioned Conservatives have a Party waiting for their votes, selling a conservative message that resonates well with us - UKIP. A million natural Conservative voters went there in the last election, this number could well increase.
Where will disillusioned core Labour voters go? The natural choice is the Lib Dems but, thanks to their enthusiastic support for cuts in the coalition, the opposite may happen.
Left of centre Labour voters who feel the Party isn't left enough certainly won't vote Lib Dem, but a lot of Lib Dems may go to a more centrist Labour leader. Labour core voters may stay at home, but with the litany of 'cuts, cuts, cuts' coming from the media (and this before any cuts actually happen) that is doubtful.
oswyn
August 30th, 2010 11:59am Report this commentwith the little prince of darkness who knows? this could be a brilliant tactical intervention to keep his beloved peoples party in the game, or it could be due to an imagined slight from millipede minor. I cant be bothered with the tiresome man anymore and the times with its tiny readership is the best place for him.
Boudicca
August 30th, 2010 12:13pm Report this commentIsn't Lord Putrid dead yet?
Shame.
Steve
August 30th, 2010 12:57pm Report this commentLol when have Labour been anything else?... Faces may change but still the same debt creating, society destroying idiots as before.
Same old story!
strapworld
August 30th, 2010 1:13pm Report this commentnormanc...please wake up. Look up the electoral results for the last three general elections. Look how many Ukip candidates there were. Look how many were elected to Parliament. Then look and see how many lost their deposits.
Whilst you are considering things. One million conservatives, Are you sure? But how many voters are there in our United Kingdom? Ukip have got so far to go and they have wasted so many years with constant internal strife and hatreds!
Baroness Helena Handcart QC
August 30th, 2010 2:22pm Report this commentMandy is telling it as it is. If they pick MiliE and retreat into the comfort zone they won't be doing themselves any favours. I'm not sure MiliD has the force of personality to take them where they need to go (there has no sign of it yet, and he will have the ball and chain of disappointed and embittered rivals to drag about), but if they don't begin that journey they really are toast. Fervent wishers for righteous revolution wish fervently in vain on the whole. Amazingly, there's still a chance that it will be MiliE, albeit using a voting system they don't want Joe Public to have. Tosspots - far more stupid and inward looking than the Tories ever were.
Baroness Helena Handcart QC
August 30th, 2010 2:30pm Report this commentMe again, sorry. I've just seen in (£) that MiliE is hinting that he may give Diane a job in the shadow cabinet. He really must be desperate now - or maybe he has finally unmasked himself as a circa-1983 loon? A shame. Ed has far more charisma than David but seems fixated on ideological purity instead of actually helping people by getting into office and doing what it possible and realistic. Michael Meacher for Shadow Chief Secretary, anyone?
Verity
August 30th, 2010 3:07pm Report this commentWalsingham's Ghost - No, it was a set of Hammer Films.
lescam
August 30th, 2010 3:58pm Report this comment@ Trevorsden
"So that when D. wins he can appoint E. to be Chancellor (and leader in waiting)"
Ed Balls would have an apoplexy if MiliE gets the Shadow Chancellor's job, let alone "leader in waiting". As he (Balls) apparently now has no hope of getting the top job, he must have his remaining hopes set on the next best thing. There will be a bloodbath if MiliD and MiliE get the 2 top jobs. On the other hand, if MiliE wins, MiliD will be so narked he will "take his ball and go home". Can't wait to see the fun.
Personally I would quite like Balls to win, although it appears impossible now. He is less geeky than the other two, certainly has the killer instinct of a leader, and being so unpopular in certain quarters, would help the Tories, if unintentionally.
KB
August 30th, 2010 5:58pm Report this comment"we're not looking for a preacher as our leader."
Just another chance for the Third Man to twist the knife in the Son of the Manse. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.
Holly
August 30th, 2010 8:28pm Report this commentQ.What will Balls be when he loses?
A.A backbencher..just like his old boss.
Working hard for his constituents,beggin the new leader for stuff,slowly losing his
majority....
OH HAPPY DAYS!!!!
The Millibrothers will prove to be even thicker than Bozo and we will live happily
ever after...laughing joyfully to the posts on here telling us how great they are..just like old times,when Labour told them what to say & how to say it.
Same old game..Same old players.
normanc
August 30th, 2010 9:05pm Report this comment@strapworld
I'm not saying conservatives should vote UKIP, nor that UKIP is the great hope for the future, nor that they will ever win an MP. The point I was trying to make was that disillusioned conservatives (small c) have the choice to either stay at home, hold their noses and vote Cameroon, or vote UKIP. It's not how many votes UKIP gets that matter, it's who those votes are taken from.
How many leftists do you think will stay at home when all we are hearing about are cuts? And what sizeable Party now exists to draw away core voters from Labour? Could make a case for the BNP, that's about it.
Major Plonquer 1
August 31st, 2010 2:26am Report this commentJust a thought. We now seemingly have Milibands D & E as a choice of leader of the Labour Party. But whatever became of Milibands, A, B and C?
Not being one who is intent on developing conspiracy theories, I suppose it might be metaphorically similar to that wonderful medical ointment, Preparation H.
As a relieved sufferer of hemorrhoids I'm inclined not to wonder too much about whatever happened to Preparations A through G, although it really doesn't bear thinking about.
Come to think of it, the similarity between the current Labour Party and Hemorrhoids is astonishing - we'd all like to get rid of them but even after all the pain, itching and scratching they just pop up again as though nothing had happened.
.
Laura Light
August 31st, 2010 8:01am Report this commentNO-Labur, usually. Apart from politicians and endless quangos.
Hugh Janus
August 31st, 2010 8:59am Report this commentMandelslime craves publicity, so for pity's sake stop pandering to him. As yet another NuLiebour crony he's yesterday's man, a member of one of the most spiteful, loathed and illiberal governments of modern times. I do not wish to be reminded of this fact.
GeoffM
August 31st, 2010 11:18am Report this commentCameron got it right about the Labour Party being like a Star Trek convention - full of nerds and oddities.
The leadership line-up consists of two Eastern European Marxist Jews (sons of an illegal immigrant), an upper middle class guy with manic bulging eyes, a man with a mono-brow (shaved) and a woman who looks like Mugabe.
It is plain for all to see that the Labour Party is NOT a party of the British people - less so of the British working class.
The sooner they wake up and vote for some other Party the better it will be for all of us.
Revenge of the Nerds may have been a passably funny film - but not a form of government.
Anne Wotana Kaye 1
August 31st, 2010 12:35pm Report this commentKinnock suggests Mandelson is "going through a mid-life crisis". Does this mean that the 'Lady' is having the menopause complete with hot flushes?
Fex Urbis
August 31st, 2010 12:58pm Report this commentLord Foy? Big, big yawn.
Anne Wotana Kaye 1
August 31st, 2010 1:21pm Report this commentTwo-horse race? Nonsense, more like a two-gelding stagger.
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