It is disinterest not defections that should really worry Labour

I suspect that Lord Ashdown and the Lib Dems are involved in a bit of mischief-making with their suggestion that Blairite MPs might come and join them (see Pete’s take on the story here). The Lib Dems have no realistic prospect of power and I suspect that the Blairites are thoroughly tired of constantly going against a party base that is considerably to the left of them. What I do think, though, is a danger is a lack of a Gaitskellian desire to ‘fight and fight again to save the party’.

A friend of mine was recently in a discussion with a Cabinet minister and asked him what he would do if the party lurched to the left or was taken over by the Balls-Unite axis. He replied, ‘Oh I’d be off then.’ He went on to talk about alternative careers he could pursue. What the younger ranks of the Labour party lack is a Mandelson figure, someone tribally committed to Labour but who understands where the party needs to be and what it needs to do to win elections.