Albeit that weight of support already leans to the Right, and that a blatant leftist agenda might arguably allow a right-wing media to successfully frighten the moderate majority of voters at the next election, the nomination of Diane Abbott at this venture, whatever the eventual vote for leader, seems desireable. Encouragement must be evident for greater depth and breadth of debate about shared values and future options than was possible in the pre-election period. It would be strengthening, not weakening, to recognise and welcome diverse strands in the tapestry of opinion, rather than to shut down, decry, or deny. Good leadership will respect the breadth, absorb the good, utilise the tension.

In so far as there may be a democratic deficit consequent on the disconnect between the elected representatives and the trust or confidence placed in them by the citizens, then this has been increasingly not solely due to publicised scandals and corruption but more, I believe, due to the teflon-gap between, on the one hand, the conversation held by the politician-cum-PR-bureaucrat with their own like, and on the otherhand the free-flow of interested and informed debate by myriad modes in contemporary techno-media-facilitated society. If the official parameters, scope or time of debate is too curtailed, or if widely held concerns are not respectfully adverted to, then there is danger that the committed, value-based, and democratically responsible denizens conclude that leaders are not listening, only want power & control to serve vested intersts, and will again be hell-bent on driving through targets and partisan dogma which may prove as alienating or damaging as the War. As with banks and money markets, so with politicians and levers of power, the masses are looking for change, for signs of inclusivity,for rebalance towards greater equity, for representative democracy, even in the process as in the project.

The LP hierarchy won't want Diane Abbott or John McDonnell to stand because they are terrified of the popularity of 'real' Labour socialists with the grass root membership....