The best thing for the Blairites to do is not field a candidate

Posted on March 27, 2007
Filed Under Election |

In another day of speculation about the Labour leadership contest, the Guardian tells us that the Blairites are scrabbling around to find a viable candidate to face Brown to prevent his “bandwagon running out of control and sweeping up more Blairite ministers in a canvassing operation.” They may yet find themselves a willing sacrifice candidate. However, the best thing for the Blairites to do would be not to field a candidate.

Brown is currently being trouced in the polls. There may be a bounce when he is finally crowned king, but it will be short lived because voters have already made up their minds about Brown’s ability to run the country. Brown also faces the challenge of renewing the Labour party whilst still in power, a difficult feat that no one has achieved before. Under these conditions it appears he will lose the next election.

The next election will be the equivalent of the 1992 election: the one Major should have lost. It is the one Labour should lose. We have a Tory party that under Cameron is beginning to change and become electable again. But this is presently all spin, there is little or no substance in the way of policy. Cameron’s Conservatives will not have made the fundamental changes needed to prepare for government by the time an election is called in 2009. If Cameron does win, it will be on a wafer thin majority without the necessary ideological direction needed to bring about fundamental change to the British political landscape. Cameron will be in government but not in power and it will not last long.

The best think for the Blairites will be to let Brown win. A leadership contest at this time would split the party. If they wait until Brown loses the next election, the Labour party will be forever convinced that the only way is the New Labour way and they will clamber to elect a Milli-Me or an equivalent Blair type clone. The election in 2013 will then be all New Labour’s to win.

Comments

2 Responses to “The best thing for the Blairites to do is not field a candidate”

  1. Richard Havers on March 30th, 2007 4:49 pm

    I think the ‘no candidate’ option for the Blairites is spot on. Whoever they put up will be slaughtered and so it’s better to keep their powder dry.

  2. Brightening up the leadership blues : The Man Who Would Be King on April 30th, 2007 12:57 pm

    […] Clarke, it looks as if the Blarities are going to pave the way for a short Brown Government. The Blairite’s best move in my […]

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