Labour Party leadership election 2015

[Phony Moderate]

IMO Labour would've done better with Balls as leader and Ed as Shadow Chancellor instead of the other way around. Balls could've unleashed the works at PMQs and Ed as a geeky technocratic type may have been better suited.

[Phony Moderate]

Received an email from Dan Jarvis (who has barely said a dickie bird during this campaign) urging a vote for Creasy for Deputy. So he backs a Burnham/Creasy ticket, which funnily enough was my idea of a dream ticket right after the GE.

[Phony Moderate]

What are the chances of Corbyn becoming party leader at this point?

Pretty high (he has a 37-point lead after all) but not certain. What is certain is that things will get nasty after September 12th no matter the result.

[Phony Moderate]

Brown to intervene today. A ComRes poll apparently shows that, according to the public, Corbyn would be the best and worst leader electorally. It also shows that David Miliband is more popular than any of them; given that the average journalist almost certainly has a giant framed photograph of him on their bedroom ceiling, this isn't surprising.

[Phony Moderate]

Brown speaking now. Started off well but now going off on a weird tangent about Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebrations.

[Phony Moderate]

Didn't endorse anyone. Lots of stuff about 'electability' and 'the need for power' early on but not so much in the latter stages. Ended it by quoting Bevan.

[Phony Moderate]

Brown speaking now. Started off well but now going off on a weird tangent about Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebrations.

I would have assumed he would back Cooper, she and Balls always stroke me as Brownites

Balls is practically his political son.

[Phony Moderate]

The Independent on Sunday has learned that, if he wins, Corbyn intends to make John McDonnell Shadow Chancellor and put Tom Watson in a 'party management' role.

[Phony Moderate]

Would Watson suggest full leftist?

Watson is a right-winger who has appeal across the party.

[Phony Moderate]

Watson is a unionist, which for some media people automatically means "raging leftie"

They should take a look at the voting breakdown of the 1981 deputy contest.

[Phony Moderate]

Just voted online. For Leader - 1. Corbyn, 2. Burnham, 3. Cooper, 4. Kendall. For Deputy - 1. Creasy, 2. Watson, 3. Eagle, 4. Flint, 5. Bradshaw. Cashman and Clark for the CAC.

Oh, and David Miliband has endorsed Kendall.

[Phony Moderate]

Will the Deputy result be announced before or after the Leader? If before then it might give an indication of the Leader result, particularly if Eagle does well.

[Phony Moderate]

Take with plenty of salt, but rumour is that Corbyn activists are worried about early canvassing figures from Unite. To add even more salt: the rumour is from Dan Hodges.

[Phony Moderate]

London will be interesting; polls amongst general Labour voters give Jowell a handy lead but I don't think there has been a poll of members and registered supporters.

[Phony Moderate]

Voted for Burnham, Watson and Jowell. Where does that put me on the ideological spectrum

You didn't vote for the one who will make Labour un-electable for a generation.

He'd certainly have better personal ratings than Bill Shorten though...

[Phony Moderate]

The bookmaker Paddy Power is now paying out on a Corbyn victory.

[Phony Moderate]

Burnham hasn't ran the best campaign but his tactics of recent days are probably clever; he could well win quite a few soft Corbynites over.

[Phony Moderate]

Now would have been a good time for a Burnham\Cooper pact like the old Blair-Brown one, problem is both are mediocre at best

Problem also is that it is too late for anything like that and it would quite possibly benefit Corbyn anyway.

[Phony Moderate]

The New Statesman has endorsed Cooper (what a sensible lot ):

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/08/ns-leader-choice-labour

If Labour don't take this opportunity to elect it's first woman leader Lord alone knows when they ever will

When there is a woman worth voting for, probably. Creasy has potential.

[Phony Moderate]

There is reason to believe that another YouGov poll is in the works; if it shows a similar story to the previous one then that is probably that.

[Phony Moderate]

Oh dear.

Still, George Brown was Deputy for a decade, and Alec Douglas-Home was PM.

[Phony Moderate]

Stephen Bush of The New Statesman just linked to this week-old article of his.

Still want to see this next YouGov poll though (assuming it will be publically released).

[Phony Moderate]

I'm not sure that people elected in 2010 deserve the label of 'grandee'. Anyhow, I predict that Corbyn won't win; mostly because the idea that I'm on the winning side of anything always digusts me.

[Phony Moderate]

Deary me.

[Phony Moderate]

What do you define as 'mainstream' opinion though? A majority of the public, rightly or wrongly, support renationalization of the utilities - Link Once put under scrutiny support may or may not fall, but surely that would make that position (which of course Corbyn holds) mainstream? Or are you defining 'mainstream opinion' in the context of Westminster and the media?