"Brown needs a democratic mandate", Labour needs a different leader
Along with 340 other Labour activists, including MPs, MSPs, councillors, union branch officers, reps and members of both the Labour Party and a myriad of affiliated organisations, I signed this letter which appears in the Guardian today. There is further evidence that John McDonnell, not Michael Meacher, should be the left's challenger to Gordon Brown in the news that Scotland UNISON's Affiliated Political Fund, or Labour Link, committee voted unanimously yesterday to support John.
Oh, and he's doing signifcantly better in the BBC's opinion poll, too. Although the results of that poll seem rather odd. When I went to bed last night, the 'none of the above' score was nearly 50%, but this morning it's only 11% - Gordon Brown has gone up from about 35% to 65%, while the total number of votes has gone down by four thousand. Couldn't be fiddled, could it?
"All those polls measure is
"All those polls measure is who has more supporters who are prepared to spend hours on end voting and deleting cookies."
As well as throses who can write bot's to do the job for them.
On the issue of McDonnell or Meacher (come on McDonnell) what will you do if Meacher win's the stand off? Will you call for a vote for him or not?
Personaly I guess i'd vote for him (As a member of Amicus (err.. unite) I have a vote) but I would need some persuading to send a positave e-mail about him to our members.
Meacher
I think you'd have to say that in a Meacher v Brown contest, you'd back Meacher. It wouldn't make sense to refuse to vote on some point of principle about Meacher not actually being left-wing. He may not be, but within the labour movement socialists shouldn't disenfranchise ourselves: against Brown, Meacher would be a vote for an alternative vision, even if a confused one.
But I really hope it doesn't come to that. Given the news from UNISON Scotland Region, the letter in the Guardian, and the continued media coverage of McDonnell, I really hope Meacher and his few friends in Parliament realise that they'd be doing no-one in the Labour Party (except the Brownites) any favours by persisting in his candidature. It's not about winning the stand-off, I think it's about having the clarity to understand that McDonnell has built a campaign around himself that can take his message to the grassroots of the labour movement. Meacher has nothing except a handful of MPs, at least one of whom is so inspired by Meacher's leadership challenge that he's already announced his retirement from parliament!
P.S.
Welcome back to the world of blogging.
BTW why Duppal?
Drupal
Just 'cos I use it in so many other places. It's extensible in lots of ways, and I like the modules we can add later if the mood takes us.
Polls
All those polls measure is who has more supporters who are prepared to spend hours on end voting and deleting cookies.
Do you know what the hell is going on re McDonnell or Meacher?
I can't believe Meacher has more nominations. Maybe he is just refusing to stand aside, or maybe his handful of supporters are refusing to switch allegiance to McDonnell.