Who should be the next leader?

IveSeenTheLight

N1AK wrote: »

Don't worry. He's just decided to go back on his promise. Thank god for the common sense, honest, trustable approach that a deluded minority think UKIP encapsulate!

Hey.
He just lost the seat he was competing for.
A man of his stature just needed his ego massaging.;)

Redknapps_Dog

N1AK wrote: »

Don't worry. He's just decided to go back on his promise. Thank god for the common sense, honest, trustable approach that a deluded minority think UKIP encapsulate!

He's got health problems hasn't he?

Jennifer_Jane

I would have liked Suzanne Evans for UKIP; Labour have no-one, no-one with gravitas, no-one who could deal equally with Merkel, or even Hollande, let alone Obama. Chuka Umunna has some star quality, but insufficient. I feel that the Tories are going to make mincemeat of them.


Ed Miliband was the wrong brother: awful policies and no charisma, no gravitas.


As for Andy Burnham - just remember mid-Staffs hospital (let alone all the rest of it: PFI; mixed wards - he didn't bring them in, but in 2010 there were 1100 mixed wards, and in 2015 around 200. Still too many, but some achievement); c.Difficile and MRSA. All on his watch. People dying in the most terrible, unnecessary way - all on his watch.

chewmylegoff

Generali wrote: »

Who should be the next leader? Me. The rest are just noise.

In the spirit of the question, Carswell for UKIP until autumn and then Farage again (he said he'd step down and may stand again).

Ummuna? Too brown for Scotland and too left for England.

Harperson has no chance: Labour don't put women into senior posts. (Shadow Deputy PM? Gimme a break).

Burnham? Maybe. He has Treasury experience which is a good start. He's just another career politico though and I think the country is sick of them.

Chances are they'll be up against BoJo or Ms May so Labour wil need someone charismatic. That realistically means Unamma. Anyone bland will be eaten for lunch.

If labour want to get in they need to select a leader who won't put off the English centre-ground middle-class swing-voters who were scared off by the wrong Miliband. For me that means Andy Burnham out of the serious contenders. Umana is just as unelectable as Miliband in my view. I am sure he will appeal to the core Labour voters but they will vote for Labour even if they were led by Fred West.

padington

chewmylegoff wrote: »

If labour want to get in they need to select a leader who won't put off the English centre-ground middle-class swing-voters who were scared off by the wrong Miliband. For me that means Andy Burnham out of the serious contenders. Umana is just as unelectable as Miliband in my view. I am sure he will appeal to the core Labour voters but they will vote for Labour even if they were led by Fred West.

Tristan Hunt, very very solid candidate. When I first saw him talking I thought 'why the fracking hell is this guy not running the show'. Total no brainier.

Got what's needed in spades.

Loughton_Monkey

I dream that Labour will vote in Diane Abbott as their next leader. It will guarantee a reduction in Labour seats at the next election.

princeofpounds

Umunna would be a disaster. He has some charisma but he would sink like a stone in places like Warrington and Oban. That's not because of his skin, but because of his social status (or at least his attitude towards it).


Having seen him quaffing rose wine with Fiona Phillips off the telly, in his sharp suit and very very expensive watch, you can just tell he is a champagne metropolitan socialist of the highest order.


Yes, he has a rags to riches story, but it's not for him (posh school, city lawyer). It's supposedly for his dad, a Nigerian immigrant. But it doesn't bear much inspection - his father was a Nigerian tribal chief involved in Nigerian business and politics who eventually died in mysterious circumstances.


And of course there was the infamous 'trash' posting on an exclusive, invitation-only social network, describing the ordinary people he was glad to leave behind in the UK as he went on a high-end holiday to Ibiza. So he has form.


You see, I think people are missing a big thing about why Labour has lost touch. They got squeezed by the SNP on the left and let's not forget a lot of their core vote departed to UKIP on the right (who despite their one seat won masses of support in traditional Labour areas to become a large #4 party by votes).


Perhaps the real issue was that people on both left and right of the party felt that they simply weren't able to represent them any more.


The top team was formed of policy wonks, privileged academics, oxford PPEs, MPs married to other MPs, heirs to family fortunes etc. etc. These are not people who appeal to aspirational middle class, let alone struggling manual workers.

purch

padington wrote: »

Tristan Hunt,

Not with that first name ............................ and the surname could pose a few problems as well :eek:

Thrugelmir

princeofpounds wrote: »

Umunna would be a disaster. He has some charisma but he would sink like a stone in places like Warrington and Oban. That's not because of his skin, but because of his social status (or at least his attitude towards it).


Having seen him quaffing rose wine with Fiona Phillips off the telly, in his sharp suit and very very expensive watch, you can just tell he is a champagne metropolitan socialist of the highest order.


Yes, he has a rags to riches story, but it's not for him (posh school, city lawyer). It's supposedly for his dad, a Nigerian immigrant. But it doesn't bear much inspection - his father was a Nigerian tribal chief involved in Nigerian business and politics who eventually died in mysterious circumstances.


And of course there was the infamous 'trash' posting on an exclusive, invitation-only social network, describing the ordinary people he was glad to leave behind in the UK as he went on a high-end holiday to Ibiza. So he has form.


You see, I think people are missing a big thing about why Labour has lost touch. They got squeezed by the SNP on the left and let's not forget a lot of their core vote departed to UKIP on the right (who despite their one seat won masses of support in traditional Labour areas to become a large #4 party by votes).


Perhaps the real issue was that people on both left and right of the party felt that they simply weren't able to represent them any more.


The top team was formed of policy wonks, privileged academics, oxford PPEs, MPs married to other MPs, heirs to family fortunes etc. etc. These are not people who appeal to aspirational middle class, let alone struggling manual workers.

Sounds no different to the others.

"Umunna was accused of hypocrisy for accepting a £20,000 gift from a gambling executive despite campaigning against the spread of betting shops in his constituency and promising new powers to limit them"

Conrad

princeofpounds wrote: »

The top team was formed of policy wonks, privileged academics, oxford PPEs, MPs married to other MPs, heirs to family fortunes etc. etc. These are not people who appeal to aspirational middle class, let alone struggling manual workers.

I've long argued Labour was hijacked by the liberal elite gazing down from Highgate Hill.
The working 'Man' has no need of people like this, no connection with them.


The liberal sect are out of step with reality. They glean their 'facts' from equally niave academics. This blindsides them.
For example I know from years of working with tenants on benefits that a big bulk of these could work, but left wing wonks instead take their lead from the fact very few claimants are prosecuted for fraud (goes without saying, prosecution and detection are very difficult).