´óÏó´«Ã½

Good old 'nu' labour, can always be relied upon not to trust the electorate to come up with the same decision they have already made.

Good job I got on Dave M early at even money, he is now red hot odds on favourite, so much so that i have hedged my investment with bets errmmm sorry investments on both ed's so I am guaranteed a return now bar some total left field player emerges at the last minute...but labour would never allow that:)

I will have to wait until september for my winnings errm sorry I mean return on my investment, but no bank gives 35% interest in 4 months.

Once you understand how these folks work its like shooting fish in a barrel this political gambling...ermm sorry investing lark.

I wish there was an election every month, I would never have to work again.

Its simple, all you do is assume the worst motives in the politicians and the best motives in the british people, see what outcome that spits out in a given situation and bet on it.

Works every time.

The Milibands may be brothers but politically they are clones. There was a time when many in the Labour ranks could see that Gordon Brown's record of mistakes, and his decision to base the electoral campaign on the incitement of distrust and fear of the Tories while doing little to persuade people the Labour tactic of doing nothing meaningful to reduce the deficit for a year in the expectation of 3.5% economic growth was anything other than national suicide, had made him a complete liability.

When Thatcher was deemed by her party to have become a liability senior party members stood up and risked their careers to have her removed. Of course there were members of the Labour party who tried but such was the way the PM had concentrated all the power in his own hands there was no hope.

In my honest opinion only two or three Labour politicians could have stood up to Brown and secured an electoral victory for Labour in getting rid of him. Suffice to say two of them both share the same surname and were were both found wanting in terms of courage when the hard decision came (even if the record shows that at the time it took one of them an incredibly long time to commit himself to the leader).

I don't think there's any one of them that have got what it takes, and what really concerns me is that the entire party are in serious denial about why they lost the election, and are instead blaming the Liberal Democrats for having the affrontery to form a coalition with the party that beat the other two main parties in the election rather than letting Labour carry on even though they'd been trounced by the Conservatives.

Until they wake up and have a good hard look at themselves and stop blaming everyone else save for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ who, of course, remain ever loyal, they will remain unelectable, with or with out the help of their friends in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and the so called intelligentsia.

The joke is if Brown hadn't been so utterly dismissive and loathing of the Conservatives and hadn't based his campaign on inciting Tory-phobia, when you consider how many of their policies Labour happily borrowed from them, even in the last budget, the electoral and political optimum coalition would have been the Conservatives and Labour!

It's probably only me but I bet there would have been loads they could have agreed on. After all Thatcher called New Labour her finest creation!

Now the contest could well be confined to male former political advisers in their early 40s who read PPE at Oxford...
(Not that there's anything wrong with reading PPE at Oxford - I did). But some variety, please.

Indeed.

But looking at the doomed, repeating history of our poltico-media establishment, one rather fears we will always be 'ruled' (represented is so last democracy) or 'informed' by those whose education rather inevitably leads to professional experience that has little to do with those they seek to rule or talk down to: Workers of collar colours blue to white, spanning income-generating careers as diverse as engineering to hospitality, but whose businesses, jobs and/or staff relationships are forever compromised by folk who have no clue on such as science, or real balance sheets (the ´óÏó´«Ã½ seems to view budgets as, at best, suggested ideals), or for whom personnel issues and consequences are handled by a remote HR Dept. who 'deals' with such things that allows them to meddle or pontificate how others must run their businesses, untroubled by time intrusion or personal financial inconvenience.

If there is any variety, I suspect it will merely be anti-meritocratic tinkering with age or gender, but the core PPE school/uni/'political' career contribution will sail sweetly along.

'2. At 11:52pm on 18 May 2010, Trout Mask Replica wrote:
The Milibands may be brothers but politically they are clones. There was a time when many in the Labour ranks could see that Gordon Brown's record of mistakes, and his decision to base the electoral campaign on the incitement of distrust and fear of the Tories while doing little to persuade people the Labour tactic of doing nothing meaningful to reduce the deficit for a year in the expectation of 3.5% economic growth was anything other than national suicide, had made him a complete liability.

When Thatcher was deemed by her party to have become a liability senior party members stood up and risked their careers to have her removed. Of course there were members of the Labour party who tried but such was the way the PM had concentrated all the power in his own hands there was no hope.

In my honest opinion only two or three Labour politicians could have stood up to Brown and secured an electoral victory for Labour in getting rid of him. Suffice to say two of them both share the same surname and were were both found wanting in terms of courage when the hard decision came (even if the record shows that at the time it took one of them an incredibly long time to commit himself to the leader).

I don't think there's any one of them that have got what it takes, and what really concerns me is that the entire party are in serious denial about why they lost the election, and are instead blaming the Liberal Democrats for having the affrontery to form a coalition with the party that beat the other two main parties in the election rather than letting Labour carry on even though they'd been trounced by the Conservatives.

Until they wake up and have a good hard look at themselves and stop blaming everyone else save for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ who, of course, remain ever loyal, they will remain unelectable, with or with out the help of their friends in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and the so called intelligentsia.

The joke is if Brown hadn't been so utterly dismissive and loathing of the Conservatives and hadn't based his campaign on inciting Tory-phobia, when you consider how many of their policies Labour happily borrowed from them, even in the last budget, the electoral and political optimum coalition would have been the Conservatives and Labour!

It's probably only me but I bet there would have been loads they could have agreed on. After all Thatcher called New Labour her finest creation!'

Yes, yes this Tory nonsense is all very well. However, ultimately, this is a decision for the Labour Party and the Unions who support it. Mr Crick will you please keep your journalistic/opportunistic nose out of this affair. I know you would sell your Granny for thirty pieces of silver or an equivalent good story, but let me tell you that the Labour Party certainly doesn't require your input on this one. Thank you.

Cruddas and the other leftie may as well pack up and go home as nobody who doesn't fit the Mandelson 'type' of candidate will make it to first base, they will emasculate Balls, no pun intended, and the same with the more leftish Ed as only candidates to the right of Atilla the Hun have a dogs chance, witness some of what Clegg is doing now, kills me to say it but do you honestly think any of that No ID cards, less CCCTV would pass NULabour thinking? It's like a breath of fresh air listening to the news some days as the controlling fist of Brown is not around anymore and OK give the guy his due..he kept us out of the Euro but if he had stood down Labour would have won another sixty seats but the ego takes over and here we are...where we are....

'5. At 5:01pm on 19 May 2010, stevie wrote:
It's like a breath of fresh air listening to the news some days as the controlling fist of Brown is not around anymore and OK give the guy his due..he kept us out of the Euro but if he had stood down Labour would have won another sixty seats but the ego takes over and here we are...where we are....'

No, I believe you are wrong on this matter. People like you believed the undemocratic and extremely personal three year plus media onslaught on Gordon Brown's character and consequently the election became about him e.g. that is why the Tories concentrated their campaign on GB. Ultimately, however, you were duped and I imagine that history will portray Gordon Brown's legacy in a more favourable light than the rich amateurs that are now in office.

stand corrected a little on Browns legacy...history will judge Brown better than most of his peers and better by far than Blair...