Politics

7 March 2009

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

This is why all putative leaders are tilting to the left. Mr Balls has sharpened his presentation and is campaigning as hard as decency allows. If the election result makes a one-term Tory government likely (especially as Mr Cameron will be left to perform the economic equivalent of emergency root canal surgery, with all the popularity that entails), Mr Ball’s chances are reasonable. If Labour’s collective survival instincts are at least half-intact, the distinctly untribal James Purnell will be a serious candidate — perhaps allying with Jon Cruddas, who has finally summoned an appetite for the job. Presuming, of course, that both keep their seats.

Nor should Ms Harman’s candidacy be ruled out. The three-to-one odds that bookmakers are offering on the Leader of the House as the next Labour leader are shorter than the seven-to-one offered on Margaret Thatcher in 1975 (a bet taken, incidentally, by a young Foreign Office civil servant named Matthew Parris). Ms Harman triumphed in the Deputy Leadership election in 2007 thanks to Labour’s obscure voting system, which counts second preference votes and thereby ensures that everyone gets what no one really wants. This makes a multi-candidate election thrillingly impossible to predict.

All this explains why so few ministers are paying attention in Cabinet meetings. Those in vulnerable seats are in survival mode. Those in safe seats are in leadership election mode, scouring each other’s speeches for hidden messages or campaign themes. No one is really in government mode. No one outside Downing Street, let along outside Westminster, is interested in Mr Brown’s putative global economic deal. There may well be 14 long months to go until the general election, but Labour’s next leadership contest is already well underway.

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CharlieRay15

March 5th, 2009 12:49pm Report this comment

Please let it be Harman!

WheresMyVote

March 5th, 2009 2:17pm Report this comment

"Labour’s game of mental chess" gives too much credence to the opinion that there is any thought at all in the Labour party.

The lobby fodder have realised that turning up and doing what they are told is not going to keep their snouts in the trough any longer. So suddenly everyone is scrambling to find a set of morals they can cling to.

Mark Adrian Solomon

March 5th, 2009 5:48pm Report this comment

This implosion is all just so amusing to watch. Schadenfreude! Or to put it another way, sweet, sweet revenge for the long goodbye of the Major years.

Who said there wasn't justice in this world?