Greetings from Yorkshire which is now the nerve-centre of the Opposition.
With nine out of 19 Shadow Cabinet members, including Labour Leader, now based north of Watford, the White Rose county seriously holds sway in Labour's future.
The fact that in Opposition Labour's Cabinet is elected made for some interesting results.
Ex-Tory Shaun Woodward and uber-Blairite Ben Bradshaw failed to make the cut along with Pat McFadden and Fiona McTaggart. But Liam Byrne scraped in one vote ahead of Islington South's Emily Thornberry , which is a shame.
I also think it reprehensible that Diane Abbott got nowhere near the Cabinet - despite being a leadership candidate.
My view on Abbott's candidacy was always that it was tokenist and purely an expedient to keep John McDonnell off the ballot. Borne out by the fact that all the blah from Davids Lammy, Miliband et al about "inclusivity " and "broad churches" disappears the minute Cabinet elections are on the horizon. Whatever, it was a gross discourtesy to Diane by a PLP which is now way to the right of the Party. But we are where we are.
Ed Miliband has a Cabinet which is not of his choice and with a few people I suspect would not be there if it were. I hope he does not bow to pressure and deny Ed Balls the job of Shadow Chancellor - Balls is by far the best person to come out fighting against Osborne. And Yvette Cooper would be a great oppo to Theresa May as Home Secretary
Friday, 8 October 2010
THE YORKSHIRE MAFIA......
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1 comment:
Honestly, Susan, I despair for you, really I do! Surely your Marxist training can produce better political analysis that.
'Cain' Miliband knows that the *day after* he was elected leader, the conversation 'chez' Balls was how to undermine him? Neither of these arch-Brownites were ever going to be given the keys to the treasury brief and I'm surprised that you're surprised.
Also, why are you cheering the 'Yorkie' domination of your party? Don't you realise that if you are ever going to win a national election you will need to win, and win big, in the south. There's nothing like a 'Yorkie' accent to wind up a southerner, it reminds us how much it costs us to keep all those public service non-jobs going which Brown/Balls invented 'ooop north'.
Now, do try and and take a peek outside the bunker every so often!
David Duff
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