Now, over the past year-or-so i've been posting on Labourhome many will have rightly identified me as being on the left of the party. I was a McDonnell supporter right from the point when he declared his intention to stand for the leadership, and was absolutely gutted when it was announced on Wednesday night that he would be unable to gather enough nominations to stand. I felt let down by MPs, because in the end it is they who get a say on who gets on the ballot paper or not. However, unlike a lot of my left comrades on these boards, this is not a thread about how upset I am that John didn't make it on to the ballot paper.

By no candidate being either willing or able to stand against Gordon Brown I feel that a golden opportunity has been missed to revitalise the party. Despite my political leanings I would have been more than happy to see a Blairite standing against Brown purely in order for us to have a proper debate on the future direction of the party. Despite what people say about the deputy leadership contest, I feel that much more notice would have been taken of a debate between leadership contestants, and that the race for deputy will be largely irrelevant. 

It saddens me to think that I was so upset that I actually went as far as to email Labour HQ to ask them to end my membership, although today i have sent another asking them to ignore my previous correspondence. I will remain very saddened that a chance to have a real debate over the party's future has been missed, and I can only hope that at the next leadership election, whenever it may be, a proper opportunity to decide our future direction occurs, and that we are still in government at the time.