The Blairite plates are shifting

Liz Brown

The last thing that the ocuntry needs is a "witty@ but totally inexperienced Policy Wonk - none of the current crop of Lieborelites could fight their way out of a paper bag. What is needed is a General Election

Martin

A big stretch..The press would have a field day if what I have just read in Wikipedia is correct about Purnell.

Chuck

One of the issues that all pretenders to Brown's crown face is that none of them have yet been subjected to really forensic scrutiny by the press.

It would be interesting to see who came to the fore once the hacks started digging into individual's personalities and political records. I think if and when that happened some of the bright sparks put forward as future Labour leaders might find their stars waning as things like their obvious lack of experience (Purnell), lack of people skills (Balls) or personal backgrounds (can't see the Labour rump voting in another effete, public school educated metropolitan) are put under the spotlight.

Its one thing to make a name for yourself in a ministerial post with its limited portfolio and profile. Its another to put yourself forward as a potential leader of the country...

John

Whatever. The voters would simply laugh at a party that can't keep a PM in office, and an unelected one at that, and replaced it with another unelected PM.

NorthernJohn

I'd question whether Purnell is "driving an agenda forward". He may be on the right track with his welfare proposals, but he's travelling in the Tories' slipstream.

David C

No.
The moment has past.
Brown isn't going to be forced out by anybody in Labour.
The Cabinet can whine as much as they like, but, for whatever reason, they have missed their opportunity.
Rentoul can huff and puff as much as he likes, but where is his ‘Army’?
Brown overshadows all of them.
The Blairites are deliberately used as scapegoats by the Brown faction (shades of 'blaming the previous Government') and Blair himself was part of the reason for the disconnect between the Party and its roots which bedevils Labour now.
Brown will weaken further, but with the ‘Praetorian Guard’ of a separate whipping system his control won’t evaporate fast enough for the Party to benefit from his defenestration – assuming of course that he is amenable to leaving at all (every PM who leaves office in mid-term understands that the game is up. Will Brown?).

The NuLabour experiment is finished.
The ‘third way’ is a dead end.
The Party’s over.

GS London

As a bit of a novice and an observer, I would hazard to comment thus: James Purnell appears too young and not yet quite high-profile enough. We read about Brown, Darling, Hoon and so on during the Blair years, and so now we read of Cameron, Osborne, Hague and so on (though since Davis' departure, no much of Grieve - as a side issue). So while the stock may be rising within Westminster for Purnell, it may take longer outside. Furthermore, I do not see how the electorate, left- or right-wing are going to enjoy another change in Premier without a general election. If such an election were called after Purnell succeeded Brown, the tories could still cleave a considerable victory, which would not look good for Purnell now. Time is running out if James Purnell want's the job.

An Old Boy

Mr Purnell went to a public school (RGS, Guildford), not that you'd know it from his Wikipedia entry, which does not identify which "Royal Grammar School" he attended. I wonder why not?

The chances of NuLabour getting rid of Brown are zero.

Faceless Bureaucrat

I blogged here previously on this issue and suggested then that this sudden enthusiasm for Purnell as Labour Leader/PM was possibly the result of a particularly ‘Claret enhanced’ Speccie lunch. The issue is that Purnell may indeed be a jolly nice fellow, but the Labour brand is now both highly toxic as far as the majority of the Electorate are concerned and is now effectively owned by the Unions via their financial support to the Party. Even if the present Cabinet do eventually discover they have the ‘cajones’ to dispatch Gordon Brown, the Unions will not allow an old Blairite like Purnell (or Miliband for that matter) to take-over the reins – they will instead ensure it is one of their own, to ensure that the ‘lurch to the Left’ that you mention remains on track. That said, with the current state of the Labour Party, would anybody really care who was leading it?

BrianSJ

David C's conclusions are correct.
Please follow the money. The labour party is now part of the unions. Its creditors (the brothers) will have the major say in the change of leadership (who and when). Purnell has been wooing them but he doesn't have a chance. The union agenda is straight out of the 1970's. The first candidate to offer to restore Clause 4 gets the job. Of course the party will be in oblivion for generations, but that seems to be what they want.

Tiberius

"...on the basis of Cameron's offer of fresh faces and an easy manner rather than policy substance..."

"Purnell is working on those precisely those difficult issues of social exclusion that are central to the Cameron-Osborne critique..."

Someone else who says Cameron has no policies then goes on to acknowledge them.

Alex

No. Too late now. Labour has lost their moment to replace Brown and improve their chances of winning a forth term.

In any case, with the amount of controversy surrounding him, Purnell would be destroyed by the press.

William Norton

I could see Purnell as a Home Secretary or a Chancellor sooner than a Prime Minister. Much sooner. Say, early October?

Trafalgar

I would agree that Purnell has no chance of directly replacing Brown but the interesting point here is that Purnell is rapidly replacing D Miliband as the leader of the Blairite faction.

You need a bit of ruthlessness to go for the crown. I think Purnell has it and Miliband doesn't.

In the same manner, Balls has it and Harman doesn't.

Marian C

Its a poisoned chalice for whoever gets the job; no wonder nobodys putting their names forward.

JONNY

James Purnell. Oh yes. The rather weak-faced slightly camp young gent.
Just the man to save The Good Ship Britannia as it founders towards the rocks in the worst crisis since 1929. A veritable Man of Iron is our Boy Jamie with the ruthlessness needed to take all those necessary hard/harsh decisions.

And I can see it all in your nice little pic of him up-front.

Ann

Exactly, Tiberius. I have commented on that particular type of mental laziness on several threads.

Ian C

Interesting early silly season chatter, it seems to me. There is usually something in these speculations, but what?

Well, from Labour's point of view there is some point if the men in grey suits do their worst and then put a Purnell/Milburn team into Nos' 10 & 11 so that a completely whitewashed Labour Party is there to start afresh.

Strategically that makes better sense than having a caretaker e.g. Straw instructed to damage control them through an election and then introduce the acceptable faces of Labour (if indeed that's what they are).

This does rather beg the asssumption that all parts of the party will go along with it, as some have said above, especially the Unions. While they do control the money they could be ambushed into a TINA moment - and be made to cough up.

It's a brave idea - a longshot, but Labour's only hope of having something to surprise everyone with. Will they have the cohones and what are the chances of it being pulled off?

Silent Hunter

Tiberius:

Indeed....well said.

The political pundits seem to be having problems grasping the fact that.....

NO ONE WANTS LABOUR ANY MORE!

The choice is vote for 'something new' or retain the same old 'New Labour Sleaze & Corruption'

It's not rocket science, but it does seem to be beyond the wit of many of those in the Westminster Village, who should know better.

JO

Just like it would've been too much of a stretch to see David Cameron as Prime Minister when he won the leadership only two and a half short years ago????

john miller

Rentoul is another media prat who ought to use the bus a bit more.

That's why they used to call it the omnibus.

john miller

And another thing - judge a man by his actions. How many of us have friends who are lying, shallow, immoral, two-faced creeps?

That's what our politicians and political writers have become, by and large. And this is exemplified by the derision that greeted David Davis' action. How dreadfully bourgeois to hold personal, moral convicions.

John de Finchley

Miliband will never be Labour leader because he didn't attend a public or grammar school. All Labour's previous leaders have done so (well in the last 75 years or so).

It seems you need to have been to one of those schools to hate them enough to want to destroy them.

Hereford

"The NuLabour experiment is finished.
The ‘third way’ is a dead end.
The Party’s over."

For NuLabour substitute democracy.