Perhaps it is because of cutbacks, and that the paper spends
so much time fawning over London’s occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel
Johnson, but today it
has brought forth a real feast of rank cluelessness on the subject of who
might want to contest the next Mayoral election for the Labour Party. The only
thing that looks right about the piece is that Ken Livingstone will not be one
of those people.
And the article leans heavily on nods, winks, and of course “friends” of those who are supposed to be
“front runners”, the first profiled
being Andrew Adonis, who is being “tipped”
to run. “The job of managing and
improving London’s transport system, which is at the core of the Mayor’s role,
could have been tailor-made for Andrew” says a “friend”. Adonis is not a manager by profession.
Sure, he’s been in Government, and would no doubt be again
if Mil The Younger wins next time round, but London Mayor? If Labour wants a
rail guru, they already have Christian Wolmar, who has the added bonus of
knowing his cycling: Bozza has, sadly, so far produced more hot air than
practical help for those who travel around the capital using pedal power.
After all, as the Standard
then concedes, “He is Labour’s shadow
infrastructure minister, and was this week put in charge of a growth review by
Ed Miliband”, which is hardly what budding Mayoral hopefuls are going to be
doing. Likewise the explanation for keeping an eye on former MP Oona King: “recently appeared on the TV show Dancing on
Ice to build up her profile for a possible come-back”.
Strangely, I never thought of that kind of thing as a dry
run for Mayoral election, but there you go. And the trawling goes on: Eddie
Izzard has to be mentioned, but just happens to have another, more important,
job right now. Tessa Jowell is cited as a dead certainty if the vote was held
right now (it won’t be), “But she has got
a lot of other options and is enjoying time with her family”. So that’s
another no, then.
Only after throwing in another two who are more “doubtful” than “hopeful” – Stella Creasy and Diane Abbott – does the Standard arrive at someone who would be
on the short list for Labour candidate no matter what kind of selection
mechanism is used, and that someone is Tottenham MP David Lammy, who knows his
London and is well-regarded in the party and elsewhere.
But there is a final act of rank cluelessness, as the Standard claims that Alastair Campbell “has been encouraged to stand by Labour
frontbenchers but has so far said no”. Er, hello? I follow Big Al on
Twitter and he’s not so much as mentioned it. This may be because he, too, has
a more important job right now. Just because Labour lost in 2010 didn’t stop
him working, y’know.
Still, it fills a few column inches and keeps the hacks
busy. Mustn’t grumble.
Nice one! The Standard article is a re-hash of gossip in and outside the Labour Party, although suggesting Adonis and Campbell is new. Fans of more open primaries are usually Progress supporters, an organisation which Adonis is currently Chair and are part of their response to David Miliband losing the Leadership election in 2010. Like the leadership of the GDR, they are seeking to change the electorate. I can’t see Adonis winning a selection, surely even an open primary wouldn’t select a politician that has never fought and won a public election. This is also applies to Alistair Campbell.
ReplyDeleteI have also commented and issued a trackback on my blog, which is part of an as yet unfinished series on Labour's response to the Falkirk selection.