Peter Kenyon

2010: lateral thinking time for Labour

How are those of us active in the Labour Party going to lift turnout, and strengthen voting intentions for Labour Party candidates to guarantee a Tory-free 2010?

The Charles Clarke/Barry Sheerman 'change the leader' is definitely not the way. Their remedy smacks of desperation, plus the usual predictable contempt for Labour Party internal accountablility and democracy. Nothing new there from dear Charles, who was the first Labour MP to allow her/himself be bestowed with the fictitious title of 'Party Chair'. A dash of sanity, if you believe the Huddersfield Daily Examiner suggests that local party stalwarts in Barry's CLP are not persuaded of the wisdom of his repeated utterences about the Party Leadership.

I am working on the assumption Labour will fight the next election with Gordon in charge. Mercifully, he is not a Thatcher or a Blair. That's why I'm looking for allies who want to change the political landscape now to ensure a decisive victory. This is no time for defeatism.                                      

Big Ears fuels Labour stalking horse speculation

The Labour Party's friends in the media had quite a day today. The Independent on Sunday's report on Charles Clarke fielding a stalking horse in the non-existent Leadership stakes is a strong candidate for political makebelieve out of personal bile trailed by fanciful journalism. Do the UK Press Awards include one for fiction?

The News of the World proclaimed 'Melt-down Brown' and that and the rest were mopped up here in the BBC's round-up of the Sunday papers.

The Indy story mysteriously concluded:

Leadership speculation has been fuelled by a left-wing motion on the party agenda for this year's conference in Birmingham to lower the candidacy threshold to 7 per cent of MPs.

As affectionadoes of the Labour Party Rule Book know, the Calder Valley CLP proposed Rule change if agreed applies in the event of a VACANCY - a far cry from stalking horses, requiring 20% of the Parliamentary Labour Party to back an opponent. But that's what you get from misleading headlines on Labourhome: Leadership challenge on agenda!

As I blogged on Friday - not now.