Harriet Harman as deputy leader of the Labour Party...

[katelyle]

....good thing or bad thing? I was hoping for Hilary Benn - but I am very old fashioned!

Feel for you Edam

yeha but mostly voting against Labour is a vote for the Tories which although differences are seemingly invisible thse days

Boo hiss I till remember thantcher and could never vote Tory or know that my vote increased their chances..

A conundrum indeed - did the Pankhurst sisters ever envisage this I wonder...

ah - another one who's socialist principles go out of the door when it comes to her own child's education.

she'll be perfect

(thank the Lord though, it wasn't Blears - ugh!>

There were other options up here, Piffle .

Our family, like tens of thousands of other working poor in the UK, have Brown's tax credits vehicle to thank for a 7 month debacle which left us nearly homeless, thousands of pounds in debt and sent me straight back to my psychiatrist for antenatal depression - he was most helpful in our case, however.

Thanks, Gordon! I'll never forget that!

Don't get my Aberdonian work colleague started on him! 'He's a Tory in sheep's clothing.'

I did say might -I'm with you on the Thatcher era I grew up with it - but with Boris in charge 'things will only get better' < clutter's best singing voice, glasses shattering> That was the other party wasn't it!

She'll fit right in, eh, JT?

If you're gonna talk the talk, walk the walk.

I mean, if you're going to hang on to Tory policies, when your party said you'd reverse them, doesn't that sort of make you, erm, a Tory?

So then go be one and quit assuming folks are so stupid they can't see right through that!

Are you talking about me - I'm lost

No, cluttered, I'm talking about GB and his party.

I was hoping for a leadership contest, but any opposition to Gordon Brown would have needed 43 nominations from other MPs, and John McDonnell (whom I quite like politically, as I'm an old fashioned socialist and Brown isn't) couldn't get that, shame. I didn't really like any of the deputy candidates, thought Jon Cruddas would have been marginally less bad than the other 5, and that Alan Johnson was marginally worse than the rest (for an ex trade union leader, he was the only one who made it clear who couldn't care less what trade unions think of him, so why did my union back him, ugh!)

As for Hilary Benn, I like his dad but he's waaaay to the right, although he got support from some of the lefties who were prepared to nominate McDonnell or Meacher for the leadership.

Thanks expat i get a bit paranoid at this time of night ( or is it self centred!) I must go to bed!!

Is Harriet the one who was on here a few weeks ago ignoring us all then? Or is she the 200 pound handbag woman?

Agree piffle Tone was modelling himself on the Tories (imho) and when will Dave realise if I wanted to vote for Tone I would and come up with something original.
What shocking schooling thing did Harriet do then?

She either sent her dc to private schools or managed to get them into top state schools, a la Tony Blair.

Harman got her kids into very good state grammars or church schools (Roman Catholic Oratory in west London, same as the Blairs,and the youngest went to St Olave?s grammar school in Orpington, Kent which is a long way her deprived south London constituency).

People like Fiona Miller and other labour stalwarts have eschewed and condemned Harman for her choices, particulary for not using her local schools. I don't because ultimately one does what is best for ones off-spring and if you are unhappy with your local schools, then why not look elsewhere? The education system we have is the product of policies from both Tory and Labour governments.

I personally was hoping for Hilary Benn but Harman is definitely a better choice than Hazel "no chin" Blears.

About the most memorable thing labour politicians do .... send their kids to schools the rest of us in general can't whilst actively preventing people (with their policies) from doing the same. At least the Tories are honest about it!

Was Harriet Harman the MP who caused a fuss by breastfeeding her child in a room at the Houses of Parliament, or am I mistaken? A ridiculous fuss, of course.

I've never quite been able to forgive her from that time she kowtowed to those pricks and did their bidding by taking away benefits from single mothers that time.

A spineless performance then, I thought. And they rewarded her for doing their dirty work by sacking her.