Labour in Harmany

Well, it's Harman, I must have been one of those transfers from Cruddas to Harman that got her through past Johnson.

That she won by speaking left more or less only on individual members' votes doesn't bode well for Brown's plan to neuter the unions at conference.

It also shows why he was perhaps right - in his own terms, - not to put his premiership to the vote - it wiould have been unlikely that he could have even got the thumping win his mentor Smith got in '92.
Teh fight is clearly on - I am intrigued to find out what he has in mind when he talks of Citizen's Juries, and how far he'll take the concept.

To butcher a metaphor, we've lost thousands of hours of our lives fighting to move the front a millimetre to the left - but it is a millimetre and we've won it.

How I voted this morning

Well, the Labour Deputy Leadership election. So, it's run under the Alternative Vote so we get to rank all candidates in order of preference from 1st to 2nd, etc. with the option of giving no preference at all. I ranked four of the six candidates.

Realistically, there is no need to rank all candidates, certainly not the last (Candidates -1 rankings are the maximum that can take effect, if we got to a fifth round without a candidate getting the quota (50% +1 of the vote) then the last candidate would be elected by elimination). I think it's an outside chance that there will be many rounds of transfering, I think at most three.

Anyway, here's my list:

Preference	Candidate
1st	Cruddas
2nd	Harman
3rd	Benn
4th	Johnson

So, why these choices? Well, Cruddas has talked left, walked left and has the serious left recommending him, his focus on council housing, opposition to Trident and the Union Freedom Bill are welcome - of course, sicne he wants to remove the Deputy Leader from government it could all be a cunning ploy to disarm the post, but despite that I don't think he will win, I think its worth sending the message that his policies are popular with members - he should get a big first preference vote, but not many transfers in.

Harman, erm, well, I was impressed by her at the hustings, she admitted on the PM programme that ashe would describe herself as a Socialist, is committed to equality of outcome, and I agree that the prospect of a woman in the post would be welcome, in that sense I'm voting the balanced ticket, especially as I'm not going to give any preference to Blears.

Benn, well, he is certainly a competent speaker, deals with journalists very well, and could well be the candidate to pick up support from all wings of the party, so he's my tip for likely winner. Although his Hustings was very much big picture global poverty stuff, i think it would be hard for him not to bring some of that to a central government post that he would expect for the DL.

Johnson was a sort of surprise to myself, I was thinking of stopping at three preferences, butr I agree with Luke Akehurst that my Union's (UNISON) nomination means something, and in elections it's often who you are voting with ratehr than what you are voting for that counts - I don't trust him, but I prefer him to the last two, and so have given him my grudge vote.

i don't trust Hain and I mislike Blears, while I think she talks some sense and has a place in any sort of left progressive movement, I think pragmatism can only get you so far, and certainly isn't a campaigning platform - that comes afterwards.

"Hi, I'm Harriet Harman"

She said, as she swooped on the person in the row in front of me - I had a trashy vampire novel to ward of prospective networking deputy leadership candidates, last night at the palatial London Irish Centre. they prowled the room butting into people's conversations and letter everyone know they were there.

We were being husted.

The first I noticed was Hilary Benn, gadzooks he has a loud booming voice - the sort I'd normally associate with puiblic schooling, but he went to his local comp. He did some sort of interview for Channel Four news, earpiece on, staring to camera - I couldn't hear the questions but it sounded a confident combatative performance.

Harman, Hain, Blears and Johnson all had leaflets flying about - as an affectionada of leaflets I have to say I think Hain's was badly deigned - nicely produced but badly designed. Johnson wasn't present himself, having an unmovable prior arrangement.

The hustings themselves were chaired by affable Lancastrian MP Shahid Malik, and were interesting enough. All of the candidates banged the equality drum - Harman and Cruddas almost explicitly mean equality of outcome (Harman claimed you cannot have equality of opportunbity while you have unequal distribution of wealth, which I'd agree with, but is unusual from this Labour government to hear, and I think I saw one or two bemused faces in the crowd).

Cruddas claimed that all the candidates were going to have to support the Fourth Option on council housing - so presumably they've all taken flak over that - plus they all acknowledged that housing is a big issue round here.

Hain was competent, and wants to have a big seat at the cabinet, to give the DL clout. Benn seemed to think much the same way, stating he thought party organisation should be the Chair's job. Blears wanted a full-time campaigning DL, as did Cruddas.

They were all fine speakers, Cruddas was mateyand informal, Benn highly oratorical, eschewing the fine detail of the otehrs' speeches to talk big politics (even using a stunt I've used on the stump often enough of waving a bottle of water around because kids in Africa are dying from the want of the same).

Harman was the surprise for me, she seemed energeic, committed, and may have bumped up a few placed in my estimation.