Bright's Blog
Politics uncovered by Martin Bright, New Statesman political editor
Sunday Roundup - 10 August 2008
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 10 August 2008
A weekly look at the politics stories in the Sunday newspapers
A good start from Toby Helm, the new Whitehall Editor of The Observer with a story about the trade union dream ticket of Jon Cruddas and Alan Johnson. The idea is that the unions feel this is the only way to stop David Miliband and a perceived return to Blairite free market fundamentalism. So there is now a pincer movement from the left and right to replace Gordon Brown. Is the game really definitively up?
The unions are misreading Miliband, who is not a Blairite in the classic sense at at all. Indeed, many on Blairite wing of the party are worried that he is far too much of a centralising social democrat. The truth is that David Miliband is just much less of a "bloke" than Cruddas or Johnson. However, there is now little doubt that the battle for the soul of the party will take place between the centre-right Compass group, which sees Cruddas as its leader and the centre-right forces gathering around Miliband.
Matthew d'Ancona has written a very well-informed column about the state of the rebellion. He accuses the rebels of being a "bunch of wusses", which is about right. But this is, after all, the Adrian Mole generation, so what do you expect.
John Rentoul on the Independent on Sunday and Andrew Rawnsley on the Observer appear to be away. Alan Watkins gives some important historical perspective, as usual. Unlike most commentators, Watkins thought Brown would have lost the elction if he had gone to the country last October. But clearly not as badly as if he went now. One scenario outlined by Watkins is that of Brown bowing out before Labour Party conference with the NEC and the Cabinet left to appoint and acting Prime Minister. Now who would that be, I wonder? Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett, Harriet Harman? It's all too grisly for words.
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