THIS PLP IS BIG ENOUGH.......OR IS IT ?

Guardianista Jackie Ashley is a permanent resident in the Westminster media bubble with little concept of life outside London and the ( what was) New Labour elote. Yesterday she expounded on the merits of the forthcoming mayoral contest for London and the Labour leadership candidate. Message, Ooona King is a woman and black so therefore must be the 2012 candidate. Dianne Abbott is a black woman too so John McDonnell should "do the decent thing" and stand down. This is tokenist rubbish. Never mind the genders, what about the politics?
John's riposte is in todays's Comment Is Free and, as he points out, this eagerly-awaited contest is rapidly becoming a farce in which there could well be only two candidates.
No women, no ethnic minorities, no-one from a trade union background, no-one from outside London, no-one( hell forfend) from a working-class background., and quite probably no-one from the left.
In short, a two-horse race already stitched up by the PLP which will make the Labour Party a laughing-stock if it goes ahead.
I mean no disrespect to the Milibands. But many Labour Party members are getting very angry indeed at the appalling prospect of two MPs hoovering up nominations - which neither of them now need - to get on the ballot. And thereby depriving other candidates and the the Party of the chance to seriously talk about where we need to be to defeat this Coalition Government in a couple of years' time
Even in 2007, when we had the coronation of Gordon Brown, Labour's deputy leadership race had five candidates - and people felt seriously involved.
Can you imagine three solid months of hustings in which Milibands junior and senior traverse up and down the country talking to each other? A nightmare
The whole point of the electoral college as successfully campaigned for in 1981 was to stop MPs vetoing potential for debate and having the only say in who was leader and deputy .
The rules were sadly skewed in the 1990's to quell dissent which is why we have these absurdly high nomination thresholds. But dissent and discussion in very different times is now exactly what we need if this Party is to get up off its knees and build and grow in the years to come. It's time to send out a message that we are a broad church once again.......and get everyone on that ballot paper.