MAN JOINS LABOUR

24 JULY 2008

I can't believe it. Labour have lost the Glasgow East bye-election. Boy that is bad. Very bad. I like Gordon, wanted him to take over from Blair, but surely he can't survive this one.


29 JULY 2008

Another brilliantly incisive article from Polly Toynbee sums up the utter despair within the Parliamentary Labour Party. Something must be done. But what?

I know. Write to Polly Toynbee.


Dear Polly,

As ever you have explained the current situation for Labour in clear and simple terms. And thank you for putting names to the faces within the factions. It has become clear to me in recent weeks that there are just two possible solutions to the current situation:
1) Elect Polly Toynbee to the post of Prime Minister.
Which I suspect is about as likely to happen as it is that Gordon will hand in his resignation.
2) Stop looking at the situation as a crisis, and see it instead as a brilliant opportunity to build (Re)new(al) Labour.

Here’s my plan. I have decided to renew my membership of the Labour Party, which I cancelled in 2002 over the party’s approach to Iraq. I will then try and persuade as many of the tens of thousands of people who left the party since 1997 to re-join, on the basis that they have a real chance to build a new, rejuvenated party that will elect a new leader in the autumn.

No doubt there are many flaws in my plan. I see merely a few inconvenient obstacles that may be brushed away. For instance, I am aware that it is not within our power to launch a leadership contest. However, my hunch is that the thousands of Labour re-joiners would be more sympathetic to the progressive wing, who would surely be emboldened if they knew that a challenge to Gordon Brown might bring an end to the stultifying atrophy you have been describing so succinctly for weeks.

What idiot would want to join the Labour Party now? Well, how about me for starters? Wouldn't thousands of others be enticed to re-join if they knew there was about to be a big debate about the future of the party, and they that could have a direct say in who would subsequently lead it?


30 JULY 2008

Well - my wish has instantly come true. The Milkiband kid has ever-so-slightly raised his head above the parapet and said it's time for a debate about the future of the party. His article in The Guardian makes him sound like David Cameron, except I don't have to feel guilty about agreeing with him.

And Polly Toynbee has written me a nice e-mail telling me that it's a good idea.


31 JULY 2008

As someone with an interest in politics a little below the scale of anorak, I thought Millie was pretty non-contentious. Some people though are claiming he's satan incarnate. Wow, he must be onto something.


1 AUGUST 2008

Today I will set up a blog that will follow my journey as I seek to re-join the Party I left six years ago. So, until next week...