A move to the left that was significant enough to win the support of the people you talk about would lose us 10 centrist voters for every lefty voter we picked up.

There may be an arguemnt that a more slightly more traditionally social democratic outlook would win back a lot of the voter that switched to the Lib Dems in 2005 (although I suspect the replacement of Blair with pretty much anyone else will do most of that anyway) - but anything else is suicide.

Sorry mate. Flawed analysis.

If you think that aligning the Party with the ideas flowing from the leftist groupscules will somehow get the voters of Stevenage or Northampton (for example) enthused about a Labour goverment then think again.

There are reasons why we won three elections on the trot and persuaded middle England (yes and I mean England) to support us.

IF we lose the next one it will not be because we are not left wing enough!!!!!!!!!

"There may be an arguemnt that a more slightly more traditionally social democratic outlook would win back a lot of the voter that switched to the Lib Dems in 2005 (although I suspect the replacement of Blair with pretty much anyone else will do most of that anyway)"

I think this is mostly right.

Although I think if the new leader was Steven Byers or Alan Milburn they could push even more social democrats into the arms of the Lib Dems (or just persuade them to stay at home).

But I definitely agree that in the wider population, beyond people who spend all their spare time (and in some cases all their work time, too) engaged in left-wing politics, there's very little interest in the ideas espoused by fringe Marxist groups.

Firstly, don't you contradict yourself by saying there is a 'perfectly good workers party here?', yet then call for quite a decisive shift of emphasis within Labour, suggesting the party isn't 'perfectly good' at the moment?

Secondly, i don't think a significant component of Labour's problems are 'left-wing splinters'. There have always been left-wing splinter groups, and always will be. Surely the fact they are so 'tiny' renders them insignificant. (General Election 2005: SLP 0.1%, Respect 0.3%, Socialist Party all of 9,398 votes!) Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_General_Election_2005

A far larger and more pressing issue was the amount of Labour defections to the Lib Dem's, the Conservative vote only went up 0.6%. Of course another big issue which you chose to ignore was the large number of traditional Labour voters who simply don't turn out.

I'm all for Labour embracing social democracy on a deeper level but as for embracing the ideologies current within groups like the Socialist Party your way off target. The Socialist Party's ideology remains Marxist, specifically Trotskyist. The mast head of their website (http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/) contains the images of Marx and Engels with the old call for 'workers of the world to unite!'. Not too equivocal an ideology is it?

Sure the Socialist Party might call for reformist measures that the left of the Labour Party supports (e.g. anti-PFI, anti- foundation hospitals, anti-trust schools, the repeal of the trade union legislation introduced under Thatcher) but the difference is that the Socialist Party remains ideologically committed to seeing these as simply settting the ground for the socialist transformation of society, means to an end rather than ends in themselves. In practice if achieved this would mean the abolition of our 'bourgeois' parliament and its replacement by 'councils' (translation of the Russian word Soviet) of workers, with armed militias formed to achieve and defend this end. If you read in detail any of their publications this clearly remains the ultimate goal. Sure its never gonna happen in practice, but you wern't talking practice, you were talking ideology.  

You say 'some trade union leaders want to disaffiliate from Labour?' Where is your evidence for this claim? Which trade unions? Should i take 'leaders' to mean the general secretaries? As with much of this piece this is terribly vague.

Most of the union executive support (http://www.cnwp.org.uk/signat.htm) for the CNWP comes from the PCS who have never been affiliated to the Labour Party anyway, and whose general secretary Mark Serwotka actually publicly backed Respect candidates at the last election! They obviously forgot 'unity is strength' this time. They also have support from some in the NATHFE who are  equally not affiliated. The major affiliated (and biggest public sector) union that has some executive members involved is UNISON. But the idea that UNISON would even consider disaffiliation is madness. Carrying the most votes out of all unions in leadership elections they'll want to use that right to the full in the future, for one thing to try and pressure Brown into policy pledges they propose (a kind of de facto 'Warwick Agreement' if you like.) The big trade unions cherish the influence their funds and votes give them in the Labour Party.

So could you point me to one trade union involved with the CNWP that could realistically disaffiliate in the near future? If not your whole claim is fantasy.

Finally, i hope you are aware of the historical irony of your call for us to reach out to radicals in the Socialist Party. For the former incarnation of the Socialist Party was of course as  Militant Tendency, who through their entryism helped contribute to the unelectability of Labour throughout the 1980s!

You also hope speak of more 'election winning' as if we've somehow been depleted in this area over the past years! Its perfectly clear surely that when we had people like those in the Socialist Party in Labour we had no election winning, but once they'd all left we won 3 on the trot! (No pun intended)

There is of course a decent piece to be written on reaching out to Lib-Dem defectors and non-voters but on the basis of this piece i don't think you're the person to write it.

The Labour Party is the Workers Party but the bosses have become corrupt and they tarnish the name of the Labour Party. Look at what John Prescott and Philip Anschutz have been doing at the Dome. Bids from Labour strong holds in the North are being skewed in favour a casino in Blair's dome.