BlogGems

An occasional series dedicated to bringing the choicest comments from the blogosphere to a slightly wider audience.
No 1.

"The primary advantage of Labourhome over ConservativeHome is that LH is not dedicated to lining up the entire British working class and buggering them one by one."

Alex Hilton, owner of Labour Home and Recess Monkey, interviewed on the Mars Hill blog.

But whose Big Clunking Fist?

The next election contest, said Tony Blair yesterday, will be "a flyweight versus a heavyweight." He said of David Cameron: "However much he dances around the ring beforehand he will come in reach of a big clunking fist and, you know what, he'll be out on his feet, carried out of the ring."

He's right about Cameron, of course. The public will find him out before long and the Tories will discover that they have massively overestimated the impact that Blair's departure will have on their electoral prospects.

But did Blair's comments constitute the long-awaited endorsement of Gordon Brown, as seems to be the consensus this morning, or could it be, as The Sun suggests, that John Reid could still be the one to send the Boy David crashing to the canvas?

After all, as the commentator Peter Dobbie wrote a few years' back, the Home Secretary does have something of a reputation as a pugilist in Westminster circles.

What does seem to be clear is that Blair has endorsed Brown or Reid, as opposed to any other candidate - which is exactly how it should be. The two of them are head and shoulders above any other candidates when it comes to experience, gravitas, and the ability to command an audience, and if there is to be a contest, then those should be the two names on the ballot paper.

In other words, it's surely now time for Hutton, Milburn, Johnson and all the other John Major-alikes to crawl back under their stones and let the real men fight it out.

Reid still keeping options open

There has been much speculation in the blogosphere over recent days concerning John Reid's intentions towards the Labour leadership, for instance:

PoliticalBetting.com
Politaholic
The UK Daily Pundit
Guido Fawkes.

Two things appear to have kicked it all off - firstly Gordon Brown's rather ill-judged kneejerk reaction to Friday's acquittal of BNP leader Nick Griffin - which managed the not-inconsiderable feat of making Reid look like a liberal - together with a view in certain influential quarters that Brown will invariably end up becoming enmeshed in the loans-for-lordships affair.

I make no comment on any of this, other than to say that I don't believe Reid has ever ruled himself in or out of the leadership battle. As I wrote HERE ten days ago, "Gordon has the conditional backing of everyone that really matters. But they still reserve the right to challenge him if it all goes wrong."

Certainly this piece in yesterday's Guardian by Jackie Ashley - a journalist with close links to the Chancellor's camp - suggests that the Brownites are taking absolutely nothing for granted.

November 15 Update: Is the heavily law-and-order orientated content of today's Queen's Speech designed to help a Reid leadership bid? Mike Smithson thinks so.

All shades of opinion

I came across the new blog aggregator Political Opinions a week or so ago and added a link, and it seems that many other top bloggers including Dizzy and Jonathan Calder have since been doing the same.

The site has been put together by Grant Bowskill and I have to say I am fairly impressed. Design-wise, it is certainly a big improvement on UK Political Blogs and its search facility is far advanced, enabling users to search specifically for Conservative Blogs or Journalist Blogs, for instance.

At my suggestion, Grant agreed to put in direct hyperlinks to the most popular categories and I have accordingly added these to my blog as well under the relevant sections. For the benefit of those who can't be bothered to scroll all that way down, they are:

Conservative Blogs
Labour Blogs
Lib Dem Blogs
Journalist Blogs

There's also a section called Commentator Blogs which I think means blogs written by people who are neither journalists nor overtly party political.

Contest lacks the Footie factor

There are two recurring themes I have noticed in recent blog postings about the Labour leadership contest. Firstly, the unfavourable comparisons that have been made between the current crop of contenders and the stellar line-up in the race to succeed Harold Wilson in 1976, and secondly, the related issue of the current lack of a recognised leader of the left.

As Mike Smithson pointed out on PoliticalBetting.com today, the '74-76 Wilson Government contained an extraordinary concentration of political talent, with no fewer than six Cabinet "big beasts" putting themselves forward for the leadership.

They included both Michael Foot and Tony Benn from the left of the party - two acknowledged giants besides whom the current-day lefty hopefuls Michael Meacher and John McDonnell are mere political pygmies.

So is it because the left has been effectively marginalised under the current leadership - "Exit Hard Left Pursued By Blair" as one memorable newspaper headline put it a few years back? Or has the left just been desperately unlucky in that all those who might have become its standard-bearers have, in some way or another, fallen by the wayside?

I would contend that, by and large, it's the latter. While Mr Blair clearly does have a very different attitude to party management to Mr Wilson, preferring to lead from the front rather than trying to hold warring party factions together, I do not think he would have excluded the likes of Robin Cook or Clare Short from his Cabinet had they not decided to exclude themselves.

Either of Cook or Short could have gone on to establish themselves as the leader of the anti-war left, and thereby become a significant player in the forthcoming contest. But Cook sadly died, while Short threw away her position by her increasingly bizarre behaviour.

But if Gordon Brown's chances have been boosted by the lack of an obvious rival from the left, he has been even more fortunate in the trials and tribulations that have befallen his potential opponents on the right of the party.

If Alan Milburn had lived up to his early promise and not flounced out of government twice, if David Blunkett hadn't self-destructed after straying too far from his working-class roots, if Charles Clarke had developed some political finesse to go with his undoubted ability....then Brown might now be facing a much stiffer fight.

The 1976 contest was of course won by the centrist figure of James Callaghan after the two wings of the party cancelled eachother out. In particular, he benefited from the divisions between Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey and Tony Crosland, the Gaitskellite Friends and Rivals who could not agree which of them would be the candidate.

What today's Labour Party really lacks is not so much a Foot as a Crosland, someone who can provide some sort of intellectual framework for a left-of-centre government in the early 21st century. David Miliband probably comes closest - but he is one for next time round.

Blair cannot escape shadow of sleaze

Avoiding the temptation to write about the US elections, I returned to thye cash-for-questions affair in my latest column and accompanying Podcast this weekend.

As Mike Smithson speculates, the ongoing inquiry - which ministerial spinners assured us would be completed by now - could play an increasing important part in determining Tony Blair's departure date.

"Given the rate at which the wheels of British justice turn, it is reasonably unlikely that any charges will have been brought by the time Mr Blair leaves office as scheduled next summer.

"But the prospect of having the ongoing inquiry overshadow his final months in office has led some to speculate that Mr Blair could yet surprise us all and go early."