Next-but-one leader

tommo Mon Jun 26, 2006 at 04:01:30 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

I'm all for Gordo as next Labour leader despite his harping on about Trident and pretending to support England but I don't think he'll do so well in a popularity contest against Cameron. It would be interesting to hear who people think should be next-but-one...



Also what are we looking for in a leader, what criteria? Ideally there should be some women candidates in the field but I don't think there will be (Yvette Cooper, Hazel Blears?). By the time Blair and Brown have both stepped down lots of the current contenders will be too old: Reid, Milburn, Johnson, Clarke, Hain... If Brown's going to make a point of distancing himself from the grassroots it would be good to have someone not necessarily more left-wing but who was more in touch with the party and the trade unions. I'd like to see someone who's a product of the comprehensive system: Hilary Benn and David Miliband fit the bill. Possibly Douglas Alexander. Trouble is they all seem a bit geeky. But one the other hand surely that's what we want in a prime minister?

tags: (all tags)

Display: Sort:
Next-but-one leader | 16 comments (16 topical)

Re: Next-but-one leader (#1)

by John Miles on Mon Jun 26, 2006 at 05:21:44 PM GMT

Difficult to say right now. Everything will have changed by the time it comes up. Depends a lot of what strategy will be best to get the Tories out.

I don't see Ed Balls on the list - surely he'd be a big beast in a Brown administration, putting him in a good position to succeed him.

Other than that - there's no Ed Miliband. He's not really known now, but give him a few years.

I think that Hilary Benn is also a lot older that you think and might be too old when Brown steps down (especially if Brown won the next election and stood down in, say, 2013).

After a bit of searching, I've managed to find an article that relates to this that i read in the telegraph a few months ago.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/01/02/do0201.xml&sSheet=/portal/ 2006/01/02/ixportal.html


Re: Next-but-one leader (#3)

by alexhilton on Mon Jun 26, 2006 at 05:40:00 PM GMT

I'm not sure I approve of "too old" comments - aren't we banning age discrimination in the workplace this year?


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#7)

by tommo on Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 04:23:18 AM GMT

Apologies if I've offended any old people... but I do think we need to see some fresh faces in senior positions in a Brown cabinet if Labour is to renew itself in government. Kitty Ussher makes the point well in her Guardian column. We also need a more consensual style of politics. Policies like the Education bill shouldn't be driven through against the will of so many backbenchers and the party at large. Judging by his comments on Trident, Brown doesn't seem to want to take this approach. Hopefully the next-but-one leader will be more confident about stepping out of Blair's shadow and we'll see a change in style.


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#10)

by Henry79 on Fri Jun 30, 2006 at 03:47:59 PM GMT

Ed Balls might be prominent under Brown but that might be a poisoned chalice. If say as is quite plausible Balls is Chancellor and the economy finally goes downhill a bit then it will be his fault. I also suspect that after Blair and Brown the party will want a break from the same old cabal which is why I would look not to them and their kids the Milibands, Alexanders and Balls but people like Hillary Benn or even say someone like John Denham- respected figures who haven't been tainted by New Labour (I use the word taint because after the election I can imagine others using it too and the new leadre in my thinking arrives after Brown loses either this or the one after.)

But on the other hand lots will have changed by then. I do think though that the Balls and Milliband phenomena may fade out, remember Stephen Dorrell.


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#2)

by Eskimo Nell on Mon Jun 26, 2006 at 05:24:36 PM GMT

I don't recall people predicting Tony Blair this far in advance of him winning. Likewise for David Cameron.

There certainly are a number of faces who would like to be leader after Blair's successor, but perhaps in a similar way to Dave Cameron we haven't seen our next-but-one leader even elected to Parliament.

Politics is set to become an even more charasmatic orientated game than it is now. That rules out (from your poll) Purnell, Cooper, Blears and at a push Benn.

Labour isn't going to slink back to the days when it will elect a man in a raincoat or with a welsh accent as leader. Likewise we will not be able to shrug off the influence of Tony Blair on the party and go for thinkers like Milliband.

From your list, I pick Douglas Alexander. But that is simply because of the limits of the list. He's a Scot, and could the Labour Party really be successful with two consecutive Scottish leaders???

In an ideal world - Mike Ion for leader!


Re: Next-but-one leader (#4)

by snowflake5 on Mon Jun 26, 2006 at 07:18:45 PM GMT

I'm not sure that politics is going to be even more "charisma-orientated".  Granted that temporarily Cameron is doing well by pretending to be Blair - young, dark hair, Blair's hand gestures, the photo-ops in his kitchen (pioneered by Blair), the photo-ops with women councillors (homage to Blair's photo with his intake of female MP's) and so on - but I think this is a temporary "re-bound" business.  People who fell in love with Blair the first time, looking for a replacement - bit like the way Rod Stewart always seems to marry look-alikes.

But there's plenty of people sick of Blair too, and wanting a clean break and something different.

P.S. Has anyone visited "Conservative Home"? They are obssessed with Gordon Brown there - lots of posts doing his astrological charts, analysing his hand-writing, psychological profiles and all the rest of it. It's quite funny. They don't talk about Blair at all, not even to acknowledge how closely Cameron is modelling himself on Blair. Interesting, no?


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#5)

by andy on Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 01:07:33 AM GMT

Fairly sure Brown will be the last Scottish constituency MP to be leader of any national political party.  Labour has already lost the popular vote in England, and I'm sure at some point in the next General Election the Tories will have something about Brown and Ming Campbell being able to tell the English what to do but not able to do anything in their own back gardens.
Benn would be fantastic, he's a brilliant speaker and he's been in charge of the party's biggest success story of the last two terms.  Eventually we'll all get over the fact that he sounds like his dad.


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#6)

by alexhilton on Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 01:15:06 AM GMT

Some of us like that he sounds like his Dad - it certainly gives him the "Trust" factor


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#11)

by WillParbury on Sun Jul 02, 2006 at 06:45:07 PM GMT

He did a after dinner speech for us in Gorton CLP. He was fab. If Brown falls under a bus then he has a  serious chance.

No he's not very young but as long as he can use hair dye he should be fine.

In the longer term. Andy Burham and James Purnell strike me as the Blair/Brown of there generation but don't ask me which one is which.


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#16)

by swatantra on Mon Oct 23, 2006 at 08:16:45 PM GMT

What did they say of Pitt the Younger, a 'chip of the old block'. No! 'the old block itself!'
I have a feeling that H Benn is rather like that, and many simply would not 'trust' another  Benn, would choke at seeing a Benn as PM,
although H Benn professes to be moderate.
He could actually come through as a compromise candidate, if there is deadlock.
Surprised no mention yet of Johnson or a woman candidate emerging from the Labour ranks. There would be reservations at the Scottish Mafia once again climbing the greasy pole. So no to Douglas Alexander; he unfortunately suffers from the same handicap that David Steele did, looks far too young.


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#13)

by free democrat on Fri Jul 07, 2006 at 02:56:12 AM GMT

"Interesting, no?"

Well not really.  TB is on the way out by his own admission (indeed timetable) and the Conservative Party won't be fighting a general election against him again.  

Brown is will more than likely be PM at the next election so it isn't suprising that's where much of Conservatives thought are.


[ Parent ]

Re: Next-but-one leader (#8)

by Brian on Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 06:59:15 PM GMT

Fairly sure that Gordon Brown will be the next leader,but many a slip wixt cup and lip,but as to the leader after him,christ who knows,theres no doubt that Gordon will have to promote young-ish talent within the PLP,and how they do against the right wing media and how they deliver a G.Brown agenda is anybodys guess,one thing for the next election,Gordon has to take on David'hi call me Dave'Cameron on matters of substance,not on spin and photo calls if this makes him appear dour then tough,he has substance Dave does not.Soooo stop talking up gazzas goal it makes you look desperate,and anyway we all know that the penalty that sunk Celtic in the final was the best one!!


Re: Next-but-one leader (#9)

by uncle ilyich on Thu Jun 29, 2006 at 09:13:59 AM GMT

If one thing is for sure, it is that Brown will suffer as David Davis did against Cameron. There is not much of a story in Gordon taking over(yawnsville!). More importantly, we should be asking ourselves, as socialists, what Gordon will accomplish and what he has accomplished. On the later his primary achievement appears to be tax credits. Which, despite the merits on paper, seems to have been colossally fucked up. My gut reaction to Gordon is that he isn't a leader,  he plays the lefty card when it suits him and then goes all Blairite when it suit him. As the Italians would say, he is lacking some cojones.

As for Reid and Milburn, don't make me laugh. Did any of you see Milburn when he was travelling arounf to loads of labour clubs and constituencies last year. He gave us the most moving story of how when he lived on a council estate(at this point you would think it was impossible to fuck up) the council decided to paint his front door blue(or maybe red, who cares?) and this converted him to socialism because he had no control over it?!?! But in fact it didn't. It converted him to some weird kind of localism that rejects any kind of collective action. The council should sell all housing to private companies because then the local person has more of a say. The more observant amongst you may have realised the last sentence did not make sense, that is because Millburn is a pillock. Additional he treats he lovely new personal assistant type person like shit, which in my book is a good way to determine a person's politics and character.


Re: Next-but-one leader (#12)

by bornin84 on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 07:55:11 PM GMT

I don't know how you get away from the 'geeky' image! Hilary Benn, Douglas Alexander, even David Miliband come across as such...and Hilary Benn would be heading for 60 by 2013. I really would like the party to look seriously at the prospect of a female or BME leader. Although whilst the party at a national level often talk the talk the grassroots are less inclined to support women. Although Hazel Blears gets a lot of stick, the Blairite wing of the party has a lot of support for her. I'd like to see Yvette Cooper given a higher profile role, which is more likely once Gordon takes over.


Re: Next-but-one leader (#14)

by middleagedlabour on Mon Jul 10, 2006 at 03:10:01 PM GMT

Do you think any of us might be the ones they mean when they talk about the cult of personality in the party?

TB is the leader now, but does anyone seriously suggest GB hasn't been almost as powerful in the last 10 years?

Whoever is the next-but-one, we need to make sure the people around her/him are strong, ethical personalities.

p.s. - my vote would be for Lesley Quinn; but she's not mad enough to run for parliament.

p.p.s. - you can't mention Purnell without mentioning Murphy.  My MP.  He's quality mate, pure quality.


Re: Next-but-one leader (#15)

by john on Sun Aug 20, 2006 at 04:16:17 PM GMT

There certainly will be a left V roght battle in the PLP post Brown. Miliband may have a chance but it really does depend on Brown's direction as leader.


Next-but-one leader | 16 comments (16 topical)