As you might expect yesterday's Labour Party National Executive Committee was focussed on the forthcoming General Election, whenever that might be before 3 June. In the absence of the Prime Minister and Labour Leader Gordon Brown in Northern Ireland the Agenda was rearranged. Deputy Leader Harriet Harman and Election Manifesto coordinator Ed Miliband were both scheduled to report, listen to debate and answer NEC members' questions. But nothing by way of either advance notice or explanation helped clarify a mystery 30-minute lecture by m'Lord Mandelson on Labour's electoral prospects - all of which IMHO had been rather better covered by Harriet and Ed. The most telling question came from a colleague who must remain nameless about whether there were ideological lessons to be learned by Labour from the banking crisis, credit crunch and subsequent recession. In the light of the obfuscation that followed from m'Lord, the famous rebuke offered by former Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee to former party chair, Harold Laski came to mind. Attlee is reported to have written:
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