Only women standing for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party

[IwantToRetire]

Not sure if it is going to make any difference whoever it is.

Bridget Phillipson
Bell Ribeiro-Addy
Dame Emily Thornberry
Lucy Powell
Paula Barker
Alison McGovern

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/all-contenders-replace-angela-rayner-labours-deputy-leader-3904804

(There may be a better article, just happened upon this one first.)

Perhaps it is a stepping stone, she is intending to build up a seat of power to make it easier to become leader or take on another senior role. Mayor of somewhere perhaps? or Trade Union Secretary?

To claim that the party owned by a proven fantasist now we have seen the success of his brexit promises is "offering solutions to people who are tired of being lied to, smeared and patronised" is extraordinary.

They offer simplistic, often bigoted, slogans that will collapse the moment they confront the mess of reality.

The problem with Labour is that, with the exception of David Lammy and (formerly) Angela Raynor, they don’t have any politician in the mould of say, Zarah Sultana or Zack Polanski, people who can inspire those around them to be better than the sum of their parts. Charisma is just lacking across the front and back benches which is astounding for a Labour government which is usually well known for having charismatic personalities.

She said ‘offering solutions to people who are tired of being lied to, smeared and patronised’

whether or not you think the solutions are plausible, I think it’s pretty unequivocal that they are being offered by reform, and that quite a number of voters find them compelling

I accept that you’re less likely to accept that Labour in particular have a habit of lying to, smearing and patronising voters (I do accept this).

but I would suggest that if mainstream parties want to retain power (and on balance I think it’s probably best that they do), surely they need to ask themselves why people find reform so persuasive rather than dismissing people as fools?

Be interesting to see if Powell actually sticks to her musings on gender now she has won the elections.

I think when the EHRC process actually occurs she will toe the line and do nothing.

I think she was trying to be "nice" to get votes and look better than Philipson. She is not a true TA believer. There are a lot of times she could demonstrate that , but she has neglected to do so.

Not that she is a great pro-women voice. She is waiting to see what is acceptable and will go along with that.

Reforms main problem at election time is demonstrating that they have competent people to fill key roles. Who is going to be chancellor- lee anderson or richard tice?

The electorate want a government that can grow the economy. That fact doesnt seem to be on labour and party faithfuls radar. Tax the rich is ideological, but doesnt benefit the workers who need a booming economy not a bloated government.

We are going to continue this pattern of being disillusioned with all parties until they get good people at the top. There isnt anyone at the moment.

How splendid. The Labour Party think some of us little wims might be good enough to be deputy leader. Lucky us!! Never ever the leader though of course, perish the very thought. Our little heads are too full of recipes and kittens for any of that nonsense.

In all honesty does ANY party at this point have a competent person anywhere with capacity to run anything at all?

It's odd. Right now I'm listening to Private Passions which went out on Radio 3 on Sunday. The interviewee picking favourite pieces of (mostly) classical music is Keir Starmer. He is coming across very well to me. Based just on this, if I had to work with him or found myself living next door to him, I think we'd get on well. He sounds intelligent, sensible, warm and compassionate. His academic record and legal career before he became an MP was very impressive indeed. The pro bono help he gave Helen Steel and Dave Morris was crucial in securing them a win in the McLibel case. Last year he led his party to a massive election win.

I often find this when I hear politicians interviewed. If given space to talk at length, many of them seem very personable and sensible, regardless of which party they come from.

And yet - look where we are! Abysmal poll ratings for Labour. All sorts of problems, coming thick and fast. Many of them attributable to the appalling record of the Tories from 2010 onwards, but Labour doesn't seem to be finding a way to connect with the electorate to convince them that they are getting on top of things, even though large numbers of them voted Labour last year.

It does feel as if we're in uncharted waters. Where are the politicians who are both competent and charismatic? Is it now a totally toxic profession, so those people just aren't drawn to it?

Well, we've just had the Epping nonce being accidentally released from prison, trying to get back into prison because he obviously thought they'd made a mistake, having the prison officers give him £76 and point him towards Chelmsford station, then apparently spending the next couple of days wandering around London parks asking random members of the public if they can help him get deported.

But don't worry, David Lammy is on the case.

Labour kept telling us the adults would be in charge. This government should be set to the Benny Hill theme.

I know, I know. But surely the problems of the prison service, the courts, the NHS, the education system, immigration policy etc etc, are really deep-seated and go back to the idiotic cuts imposed by George Osborne and the coalition government from 2010 onwards? Let's get rid of the experienced, well-trained, expensive members of staff to save a bit of money! What could possibly go wrong? Writ large.

Well there's a lot of truth in that, but really lots of these things are intractable problems that no government for at least 20 years has managed to turn round. We throw money at things and still nothing works.

I'm leaning more and more to the idea that the whole system needs a hard reboot. Which is a scary thought, but the more tinkering we do with the current system, the worse it seems to get.

Many many people think Reform will provide that hard reboot, however misguided right thinking types think they are.

Danny Kruger is a serious chap and I will pay serious attention to what he says about making government work again. I don't know if I'll agree with it, but he's one of the very few people willing to think about it.

PM is a specific kind of role. It needs gravitas, and some people just don't have that. If Starmer were running a competent government, making good decisions, that might not matter so much, but as it is ...

There's no role quite like it. You can see that if you remember that Boris was actually a pretty good mayor. He had a capable team to do the boring stuff and he'd mostly do the headline grabbing stuff, which is what he excels at.

But if you're PM about 90% of the job is really boring bureaucratic stuff that can't be delegated, and that's where Boris fell down, because he loved the glamorous side of the job but had no aptitude at all for the boring side.

I'll say this for Theresa and Rishi, they were very assiduous at doing their boxes. Their faults were different. Of course sometimes you just have rotten luck, or hapless people around you.

I once read a book about the Ottoman Empire and its explanation for the decline of the empire was that they just had the bad luck to have 13 bad sultans in a row. I don't know when we last had a good PM, not one I agree with but one who was actually in charge and getting things done. Maybe Blair's first term?

Was Rishi no use? I liked him. And yes, Blair, before he got that manic gleam in his eye.

Rishi was fine at the day to day business, it's just that he didn't seem to be animated by any beliefs or passions other than banning smoking. Obviously very intelligent but didn't seem to have any political instinct - not unlike Starmer in that sense.

In military terms you'd say they were both solid enough officers but you wouldn't be very confident about putting them in command of anything where they needed to use their initiative.

I keep meaning to read Blair's book on leadership. I never liked him, but he was a genius at his trade.

@SionnachRuadh I think we'll have to disagree about Johnson as mayor, he was an utter joke with no handle on the actual job

I keep meaning to read Blair's book on leadership. I never liked him, but he was a genius at his trade.

He wasn't a "genius". He was a total fake.

That's why he is known at Thatcher's child.

That's why the media gave him an easy ride.

They are they ones who set the mood.

Left to his own, he had not judgement. Look at his endless endorsement of Mandelson.

Look at Iraq.

Look at the debts he left the country with thanks to PPP

Look at his ridiculous everyone must go to college because everyone respects graduates. Until the financial imperitive makes the graduates pointless.

He was and is a moral vaccuum.

I hope scolding me made your day a little brighter. Good night.

You do know this is a discussion forum.

If you post an opinion on a discussion forum it means other posters want meekly agree with you. They will put forward their opinion.

FWR gets stranger and stranger.