Labour democracy?

Is there democracy in the Labour Party? The answer seems to be in bits of it. A nice little contest going on for Deputy Leader, with half a dozen keen contenders. However, no Leadership contest. Gordon Brown gets to be crowned without a proper election. So we will never know how many in the party think he's the best thing since haggis, or think he is a control freak who should be nowhere near the Cabinet Room as chief adviser to the Monarch.

For a party that's been led by a man who is still travelling the world lecturing others about democracy, it would have been nice if his successor had a mandate from his party. But who am I to complain? I'd never consider voting Labour. Once they were Red Flag sympathisers, now they are global money chasers. British Socialism has always seemed a bit odd to the outsider, whether that outsider is foreign or not.

Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister without a ballot paper passing his fingers. Well, he wanted the job so badly, let's hope he doesn't screw up by being too secretive, as opposed to being too cagey, which was Blair's problem. Brown's got two years to make a start, then it's election time. That's the time when the 80% of us who did not go out and vote for this New Labour lot at the last election can judge whether the Brown coronation was worth it or whether the jewel in the crown is a fake!

Posted in: Blair,Cabinet,Gordon Brown,Leadership