Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to George Darroch,
Not giving outstanding performance
Being able to speak coherently to media is a bit more basic than that in a political leadership role.
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Another Standard post about how the trigger might affect Labour caucus behaviour in practice.
If caucus can’t agree who to support as leader, then it will go to the party and the caucus to vote on. You can guarantee that the outcome with the vote weightings of the caucus 40%, the membership 40% and affiliates 20% is not going to be simple. The party won’t reward people that are perceived to be stirring up trouble nor incumbent leaders who let things get to the state that 40% of the caucus petition to have them removed.
I’d expect that any effective party leader will try to make sure that their most effective MP’s are fully and gainfully employed. Which is what the party and affiliates will want as well. And any MP(s) and their supporters wanting to have a shot at leader will have to be effective. These are the things that party members and affliates will look at.
All MP’s apart from the deranged will probably prefer to keep the dispute away from the party vote because they might not like the judgement passed on them. Getting any resolution in a caucus that has less than 40% malcontents is going to be a whole lot safer than whatever the party metes out.
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Barnard,
pantomime :)
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Barnard,
If Labour party members/activists really want Cunliffe as Leader then stop talking in circles.
I don't have a dog in the fight and am struggling to make sense of this situation myself, but if members have changed the rules now after being ignored by caucus a year ago, isn't that taking action?
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Russell Brown,
planning to "discipline"
the 'whip' role was bound to go there eventually
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Barnard,
politicians seemingly more interested in their own careers and internal ranglings
And we saw where their approach got the left over the past few years. Led by some of those backing not Cunliffe but Shearer, I'd note.
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Grodon Campbell also offers an interesting perspective on the ructions and their implications.
All these rational arguments have been eclipsed by the conflict with Cunliffe who – like it or not – is able to articulate Labour’s positions clearly and forcefully in a way that Shearer usually struggles to match. There is a sense that Cunliffe has tacked left within a centrist Labour Party in order to locate a convenient source of support – but in doing so, he has tapped a level of genuine frustration within the party, and he pulled Shearer leftwards on the weekend. For that alone, Labour should be grateful for Cunliffe’s efforts.
It is all very well to talk about the need for unity, but a unity that merely wallpapers over the party’s real divisions is simply a cosmetic job done for the benefit of the media, and it will not last. Either Labour has to choose to become a genuine party of the left again and contest the entire spectrum of centre left issues effectively with the Greens – or the party rank and file will need to fully and consciously embrace an MMP logic whereby a Shearer-led party positions itself deliberately in the fuzzy centre and willingly cedes the party’s traditional ground to the Greens, with all of the patience and discipline that this will require. It can’t do both things at once.
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Tristan,
I will say this though at least he put his name to his quote as for the rest of the #abc club they are all content to snipe and snarl from the shadows those are the real ‘finks’ here
Along those lines, this Standard post may be of interest.
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Up Front: Or It's Who We're Drinking With..., in reply to BenWilson,
She held on back like a child
That resonates. thank you.
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bob around in your chair
still awaiting that promo..