1. As a discerning writer of all matters politic, one must move with the times. Stay relevant. A wind is flapping about the Labour Party, and the gale that blew the left wing leadership off course has forced them onto the rocks of marginality. To be taken seriously one simply must ditch the hard left's beached hulk and bail out on the position takings of the last four/five years. And the rewards? There might be retweets from Stella Creasy, an occasional article in Unherd and CapX, and basking in five minutes of fame as a Corbynist-turned-sensiblist. I'm sure in time the smug supremacism and advocating for hospital car parking charges will come. Backing Ian is the best way of having my totally good faith apostasy taken seriously, and would secure my relaunch as an outrider for the New Moderation with a Marxisant turn of phrase.
2. I am a loyal Labour Party member who believes everyone has something to contribute, and Ian has a great record we can draw on. Just look at Ian's successful winning ways. Scottish Labour have fallen to just a single parliamentarian on two occasions, and Ian was just that only man left standing. Never mind Edinburgh South is one of the wealthiest constituencies in the country, and doing what Ian does to ensure victory there is very much not the way to win all the other Scottish seats doesn't matter. He wins where Labour loses, and that confers upon him a special status. He demands the party must learn from him!
3. Principles matter, and there's no higher value than ... winning. It's all about winning. Ian notes in his campaign material, Labour needs to win elections. As he eloquently puts it, "Only by winning can we have a Labour government." No other candidate has offered as sharp an analysis about the party's predicament. We need to win, and by saying we need to win we will be convinced that we need to win. Winningly winning, Ian's emphasis on winning certainly wins my vote. And by banging on about winning, we will win.
15 comments:
You sarcastic blogger!
Ha-ha. Good one. Made me chuckle uncontrollably for ages.
He was my second choice.
Funny. S. Cabinet? Maybe that's his real pitch...
Think however most LP Members would agree that we need to move on from the infighting of the past- particularly the public sort- not ever good for any party who wants to win elections. To state the obvious.
Bloody hell, that made me do a double take!!
This is a guest post by Paul Mason, right?
Yes its the first of April. Good one .
Lets have some faces that are not linked to past arguments otherwise the joke will be on the Labour Party. There is ability and experience in the back and front benches lets use it. Lets use the experience in the membership also and move forward to win.
That would have been a divisive choice for the party.
Breathtakingly brilliant!
Just for a moment, I was
completely........
So was I just for a moment... then sanity prevailed
Like myself and Jo Swinson, Ian is one of the few people in this day and age who actually is a unionist. So if I were a Labour member (now that really WOULD be an April Fools' joke!) I would vote for him.
Our United Kingdom is more at risk than ever from the English and Scottish nationalists and Brexit, so we need someone who articulates a positive vision of why we are better together, which even Brown and Darling managed to do, but few of their heirs believe in or care about the union enough to do so.
We can do better than this. We need to be bringing forward other voices in the party to raise the bar a bit. Lets have people we can respect, people with experience who just get on with their job. Lets not have people who slag the party/ leader in the press. Very poor form does no good.
"Scottish Labour have fallen to just a single parliamentarian on two occasions, and Ian was just that only man left standing"
Someone in my CLP really, REALLY, argued this. I nearly wept.
Good wee seat he has next to a big university population full of students, young professionals, public sector workers who vote Labour. Very fortunate for him. Hope Keir puts together a competent shadow cabinet.
A lot of myth making and superlatives about politicians alas.
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