Partial list of junior appointments confirmed. No job for Cruddas or Blunkett (which suggests that No. 10 still hasn't got the hang of suppressing speculation properly).

Quentin Davies gets MoD role.

After I spent ages digging out names, Andrea found the full list at the Guardian.

 

Pollsters Populus have conducted in-depth polling on six likely contenders to succeed Brown as leader.  Voters examined Ed Balls, James Purnell, David Miliband, Harriet Harman, Jon Cruddas and Alan Johnson.

Cruddas was the surprise package and according to the pollsters the race, whenever it happens, should be between Cruddas versus Purnell.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4743740.ece

Michael White writes in today's Grauniad.

There's an excellent article in G2 today by John Harris on Compass.

Jon Cruddas, the nearly man in Labour’s deputy leadership election, has some very clear ideas about where the party under the new Prime Minister should be headed. He spoke to René Lavanchy

The BBC is reporting that Jon Cruddas has turned down a government job. It is not yet known what role Jon was offered or his reasons for refusing.

What was your verdict?
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Already five of the six deputy leadership candidates have signed up in support of the Campaign for a Democratic Upper House.

<h1 class="heading">Brown backs Cruddas revolution of Labour party From the 'Times' today.
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The Mirror newspaper put together a panel of six members of the public to interrogate the six candidates for the Deputy Leader's post. They all made good account of themselves, but one candidate stood out more than the others.  The panel was made up of Silla Carron (Pride of Britain Neighbour of the Year), Mohamed Lodhi (pensioner), Lesley Ward (school teacher), Emma Chapman (nurse) and Katan Alder (student).  


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_method=full%26objectid=19257969%26siteid=89520-name_page. html

According to Labour members polled by You.Gov on behalf of Jon Cruddas, affordable housing should be at the top of the party's new agenda.

Labour MP and frequent blogger Tom Watson has 'declared' for Jon Cruddas. According to Tom, Cruddas is striving to energise the party's grass roots and has proved himself to be a good campaigner and as well as a savvy political operator.

Yesterday acquittal of the BNP's Nick Griffin from charges of inciting racial hatred raises all sorts of questions about how progressive politics deals with the rise of the far-right in Britain. According to Gordon Brown we need to do "whatever we can to root it out (racial hatred) from whatever quarter it comes." He is right of course. The question is how is this best achieved?