Project Volvo leaks

[Jeneral2885]

Are Ed Balls and Miliband, along with Douglas Alexander politically finished? I wasn't a fan of Alexander's role in DFID but to be a part in this usurping campaign....

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. 'Politically finished'?

:rofl:

They tried to get Blair to leave earlier. Most of the Labour Party would probably want to give them a medal.

Let me check a couple of major Labour-involved websites:

http://liberalconspiracy.org/

Nothing at all.

http://www.labourlist.org/

Labour Is United, which has attracted 1 comment in 5 hours

The Right are fighting Labour in 2005 9 comments

The opposite of news 81 comments, which seems to mainly consist of long-term commenters insulting each other.

This will be forgotten in a few days - a couple of jokes about it by Cameron at next PMQs, and that will be that.

[Hopeless Romantic]

8. The trouble is, it makes the whole bunch look...

more interested in their own advancement than in the countries interests.

This is going to do the Labour Parties electoral potential no good at all, and if Balls were ever to become Labour leader, which he almost certainly won't after this, the Tories will dig this up and throw it in his face at every opportunity (they'll do that anyway)

[LeftishBrit]

9. Like the Tories aren't seen as 'more interested in their own advancement than in the country's i

interests'?

Or the LibDems?

Or Blair himself?

The Tories and the right-wing press hate Balls already, and were trying to make him have a 'Portillo moment'; fortunately they didn't succeed, though they did greatly reduce his majority. Anyway, what is so awful about his being more loyal to Brown than to Blair? Everyone knew this anyway; and frankly, Brown, though very far from perfect, is a hell of a lot better than Blair.

'This is going to do the Labour Parties electoral potential no good at all'

If the Daily Telegraph have that much power to decide elections, then we are sunk, and would be whether this particular incident had happened or not. I would be quite interested to know where and how they got these documents. They have already acted scandalously, by impersonating constituents in order to get political 'dirt' on Cable and other LibDem MPs. And other bits of the right-wing press have also acted scandalously: notably this vile hacking by the News of the World. I'm getting sick of the incredible power and resulting corruption of our wealthy media moguls, half of whom don't even live in the UK, let alone been elected to anything.

[LeftishBrit]

2. No, they aren't.

This is the Torygraph being crazier than usual.

If every politician who had tried to defeat senior rivals in the same party was 'politically finished', there wouldn't be many politicians still about, certainly not in the higher ranks.

And 'usurping campaign'? Last I heard, Blair was neither the rightful heir to the throne, nor the appointed President-for-Life.

[Jeneral2885]

3. So I gather

From you two that Blair wasn't Labour's favourite. Right, but neither was Brown a good replacement. And this shows how Balls sped up the process of Labour's fall.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. And Brown being unpopular would be reflected in the election following that

which has already happened. Oh, so this shows that Labour was likely to lose the 2010 election, because the party chose an unpopular leader. It tells us nothing about Labour's popularity that wasn't already known.

[non sociopath skin]

4. Now the Nation is standing by to be riveted by the re-opening of the Thatcher-Heath rift ...

... followed by all that unfinished business between Disraeli and Gladstone.

The Whigs are finished, I tell you!

The Skin

[oldironside]

6. This is just...

... Westminster business as usual. Nothing more nothing less.

Blair had proved himself popular in the home counties, but his ego was threatening to engulf the party (anyone want to expand on that?) The vast majority of Labour voters wanted him out, but the bloody PLP were like a battered wife. What happens to us if he goes? What will we do? How will we survive?

Getting rid of Blair was the right thing to strive for at that time (Labour had just polled 35% in the general election). Brown's problems are a totally unconnected matter.

[T_i_B]

7. Bizarrely enough...

...it's not the plotting that gets me (it certainly doesn't suprise me) but the explanation that this was all part of the "orderly transition" between Blair & Brown.

The fact that there was an "orderly transition" actually did Labour more harm then good as it meant that the many issues surrounding both Labour government policy and Gordon Brown personally were not addressed at the time.

[fedsron2us]

10. I hear this story was awarded an OBE in the Queens Birthday Honours

as the biggest non news event of her entire reign.

The good news for Labour is that Balls is clearly seen as a potent threat to Osbourne and the governments economic policy otherwise the Tory press would not be targetting him.

It also suggests that things are probably not going to plan at the Treasury.

As for the leaks the apparent love in between Blairites and Cameron is not surprising since both leaders appear to be facile , lying, publicity seeking war mongers taken from the same mould. Neither can pass up a photo op and both prefer spin to substance. Still at least it confirms most Labour voters suspicions that the Blairites are just Tories in drag.