This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[CumbrianLefty]

His older brother?

Rather doubt it in this case.

It is almost certainly a *current* staffer or MP.

(it has even been suggested they are an SC member whose name rhymes with Sez Tweeting - I of course find it totally and utterly impossible to give credence to such a scurrilous suggestion)

[EastAnglianLefty]

It's fairly clearly not Wes. I have my suspicions of who it is, but I'm not neutral because I think he should be fired anyway.

[Coldstream]

There really isn’t a shortage of people who don’t like Ed Miliband in the Labour Party.

[CumbrianLefty]

There really isn’t a shortage of people who don’t like Ed Miliband in the Labour Party.

There is no Labour politician who is not disliked by some part of the party. But there isn't much doubt that Ed is one of the most well liked SC members, even by many who didn't rate him as leader.

[Torrain]

I know Miliband has his enemies (Syria felt like a real misstep, and election night 2015 didn’t endear him to *anyone*). But you’d think he’d have been given a little more respect after his opposition day motion on fracking humiliated the government, and helped topple Truss.

Concur with CL - I struggled to ever take ‘PM-in-waiting’ Miliband seriously, but I quite like ‘eco-warrior and frontbench schemer’ Miliband. Guess he’s just in a more natural role where he is now.

Will be very interested to see how he plays in government. Can’t shake the vine that he’ll either be gone in 18 months, or end up as one of those seemingly Teflon survivors who’s thrust into a Great Office of State as “a safe pair of hands” after a major screwup by a predecessor. No middle ground.

[CumbrianLefty]

Well one disagrees about Syria, its arguably one of the few times he really looked up to the job (and his poll ratings had a short lived spike upwards afterwards) It is also maybe hard, a decade on, to recall the sheer weariness amongst many - far from confined to the traditionally anti-war Labour left - at those seemingly promoting endless war as the solution to all our ills.

[Coldstream]

There really isn’t a shortage of people who don’t like Ed Miliband in the Labour Party.

There is no Labour politician who is not disliked by some part of the party. But there isn't much doubt that Ed is one of the most well liked SC members, even by many who didn't rate him as leader.

It’s interesting to hear this, because I’ve only ever experienced indifference or contempt for him - from across the spectrum. I’ve honestly never met anyone* with a good word to say about him - Corbynites would say he was weak & stood for nothing, Blairites would say he sold the party out and was a coward over Syria.

I guess he has the Ann Black fan club.

*except for quite casual members only familiar with his post-2015 persona. In my experience the more involved, the less someone likes Miliband.

Would be interested to see your evidence that he’s popular - is there polling on this?

[Coldstream]

Honestly I’ve always seen myself as relatively pro-Miliband in that I don’t hate him & like the fact he’s in the Shadow cabinet. I’ve never really met anyone who likes him.

[Wiswylfen]

‘Blairites’ don’t exist anymore beyond (a) a handful of pathetic, bitter MPs who still bear grudges over Gordon Brown and (b) LARPers on Twitter with a tendency to support Andrew Tate.

[Conservatopia]

Labour's PPC for my seat is a bit like that. She wasn't old enough to ever vote for Blair, has never done a day's honest work in her life (according to her LinkedIn), is hyper-online, works at Blair's Institute/cult and avoids Labour branding.

But she's good looking so she's got my vote next year.

[CumbrianLefty]

Honestly I’ve always seen myself as relatively pro-Miliband in that I don’t hate him & like the fact he’s in the Shadow cabinet. I’ve never really met anyone who likes him.

I'm sure there was a fairly credible survey of Labour members in the past few years that showed him scoring well, however it is quite possible I am misremembering here.

[Coldstream]

‘Blairites’ don’t exist anymore beyond (a) a handful of pathetic, bitter MPs who still bear grudges over Gordon Brown and (b) LARPers on Twitter with a tendency to support Andrew Tate.

You’ve never met a Labour Party staffer have you?

[Wiswylfen]

‘Blairites’ don’t exist anymore beyond (a) a handful of pathetic, bitter MPs who still bear grudges over Gordon Brown and (b) LARPers on Twitter with a tendency to support Andrew Tate.

You’ve never met a Labour Party staffer have you?

As I said, LARPers. They should watch less The Thick of It and stop harassing children who ‘stan’ Gordon Brown online!

[morgieb]

‘Blairites’ don’t exist anymore beyond (a) a handful of pathetic, bitter MPs who still bear grudges over Gordon Brown and (b) LARPers on Twitter with a tendency to support Andrew Tate.

I think the way the internet uses the term Blairite seems like it’s basically a slur for anyone to the right of Jeremy Corbyn.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Labour's PPC for my seat is a bit like that. She wasn't old enough to ever vote for Blair, has never done a day's honest work in her life (according to her LinkedIn), is hyper-online, works at Blair's Institute/cult and avoids Labour branding.

But she's good looking so she's got my vote next year.

If you're serious that's extremely shallow.

[CumbrianLefty]

Labour's PPC for my seat is a bit like that. She wasn't old enough to ever vote for Blair, has never done a day's honest work in her life (according to her LinkedIn), is hyper-online, works at Blair's Institute/cult and avoids Labour branding.

But she's good looking so she's got my vote next year.

Is this Claire Hazelgrove?

[Blair]

So the essay no-one asked for.

Ed Miliband is in a weird way I feel a good microcosm for the party's strange behaviour; he is disliked (and hated by some) of broadly three groups of people.

The Ultra blairites who hated that he criticised New Labour's record & who hated that he wasn't more pro austerity in 2015 (yes how do you square that circle? You can't but a lot of the Labour right will claim New Labour did not overspend but would then waffle about needing to 'cut the deficit and understand aspiration- they basically disliked that Ed rightly sensed the mood of the party & country)

And then the weird clique of Brownites who hated that he got the backing from parts of the PLP and the unions in 2010 rather than the annointed Ed Balls- even I can't remember who Gordon Brown actually backed in 2010 but there was a very weird split over this, and a faction of people around Ed Balls who wanted him to back David Miliband. It's getting even more confusing when you remember all these people basically worked together at some time between 1997-2010 & Brown had a very errrr unique way of operating.

And thirdly there's the later group of Corbynsceptics who never liked that Ed was not vocal enough during the wilderness years in 2015-2019; it is interesting that the core organisers of the various anti-JC movements after 2016 are now sitting in senior positions in the Shadow Cabinet.

The weird subplot is that there is still a lot of hatred from 2010 and the fact that he ran a very good campaign; he identified the areas where the average member disagreed with New Labour (Iraq & financial regulation) and played on these without coming across as a member of the campaign group - if you look at who MPs backed him in 2010 it is fascinating how many MPs backed him who you'd expected to go for for David- Margaret Beckett, Hillary Benn, Frank Dobson, Stephen Timms.

And having just looked its fascinated how many of the 2010 intake backed him; this was partly because he was militant in doing the rubber chicken circuit but equally the intake was actually a lot more left leaning than the 2005 (the bag carrier intake imho) one- the people who came in were not all New Labour ideologues

The even stranger subplot is that the race was so weird because it was 4 young special advisers in their 40s and Dianne Abbott- it was expected that someone like Alan Johnson, Harriet Harman, Jack Straw or co would at least consider running- the party might have benefited from this as all four choices in 2010 were not really suited or ready for the leadership.

All of the above means ofc you have a fun game of guess who when he's getting briefed again; my favourite was the 'actually Daddy Gordon hates you' when someone briefed some comment that Brown had apparently made.

It doesn't help that Ed genuinely is liked & trusted by Keir; he encouraged Keir to run & paved the way as much as was possible for him to get St Pancras & it was rumoured Keir would get a slot as Attorney General in a Labour Government.

And it was heavily rumoured that he was nearly appointed as Shadow Chancellor and is someone who ofc served in the last Government as a cabinet Minister and was an effective one; this is something the leadership favour- see the promotion of Hillary Benn, the return of several junior ministers to the mid ranks in the Cabinet & the number of new Labour SPADS.

And finally Ed has the climate brief which is already a nervy football involving a lot of paranoria and tensions with the Trade Unions; it is a difficult and technical brief, and the fact that he has kept it is a sign of things as others did not keep briefs where they were disliked by stakeholders, or seen as weak.

 

[CumbrianLefty]

Very unusually, the Labour conference is happening after the Tory gathering this year. That gives them a real opportunity to put themselves in a very strong position, but many a slip and so on

[Blair]

A strange sunday request; does anyone know why Donald Dewar was opposition Chief whip in 1995-97 but was then appointed as Scotland Secretary? And then why the honourable memeber for Newcastle East...  

I'm doing some reading about New Labours first cabinet and it's confusing me a lot; there seems to have been a huge clear out in 1999 & 2001 of a lot of junior roles which I can't really find any explanation for.

Is it some weird legacy of Shadow Cabinet elections?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A strange sunday request; does anyone know why Donald Dewar was opposition Chief whip in 1995-97 but was then appointed as Scotland Secretary? And then why the honourable memeber for Newcastle East...  

I'm doing some reading about New Labours first cabinet and it's confusing me a lot; there seems to have been a huge clear out in 1999 & 2001 of a lot of junior roles which I can't really find any explanation for.

Is it some weird legacy of Shadow Cabinet elections?

Essentially, yes. There was comment at the time that after the election Mr Blair would be able to pick his own cabinet. Tom Clarke would always win a seat in Shadow Cabinet elections because he was a gregarious chap very well liked with the backbenchers for that reason. It was also the case that in the first phase of his Premiership, Blair wanted people around who had been around for a while due to the general lack of experience after eighteen years in opposition, while afterwards he wanted fresher faces, especially those who had (in his view) proven themselves.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

‘Blairites’ don’t exist anymore beyond (a) a handful of pathetic, bitter MPs who still bear grudges over Gordon Brown and (b) LARPers on Twitter with a tendency to support Andrew Tate.

You’ve never met a Labour Party staffer have you?

As I said, LARPers. They should watch less The Thick of It and stop harassing children who ‘stan’ Gordon Brown online!

I prefer A Very British Coup myself.

[CumbrianLefty]

Jeremy Corbyn was no Harry Perkins, unfortunately.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's a fascinating series as the story is a bit ropey and doesn't quite gel, but it doesn't matter because Ray McAnally's performance is that good. Thunderously charismatic in a way that holds the whole thing together, truly iconic stuff and he was dead three months later. Of course that was arguably the least realistic thing about the programme: in reality, British voters don't really go for charismatic that often, and certainly not in that period.

[CumbrianLefty]

I do indeed generally think that "charisma" is overrated as a vote winner.

[Wiswylfen]

At conference. Went for the first time last year after actually getting involved in Labour politics and I’m now heading back this year.