Josh Blacker's Blog

Last night I was in Stratford to watch the five contenders for the Labour Party leadership vie for the support of young party members. Before I get into the individuals themselves, first off a couple of thoughts about the event itself:

• It was quite dull as an event – no attempt made to make it exciting for us as an audience. Even a little bit of music while we were waiting would have been welcome!
• Pre-vetted questions. We were asked to submit questions in advance, which made it a little bit more dull. I don’t know if the candidates were told – or agreed – that they would answer on particular issues, but this is something that needs to change. Our leader needs to be comfortable answering any question on any subject.
• The host was awful. It’s a youth hustings, not a children’s hustings. Fiona Phillips was nothing more than a mistake.
• Friday early evening in London? Hardly accessible for young party members unable to travel due to cost or distance. There was apparently a live feed, but it wasn’t publicised very well. One tweet I saw suggested it had fewer than 100 viewers.

Anyway, onto the candidates.

As a general observation, I do not want to hear two months of policy debate. We have years of work ahead to move our policy to a position where we can win a general election. All the candidates are Labour MPs, so of course they occupy similar policy positions – ten minutes of ‘Ed was right, we need to…’ or ‘I agree with Diane…’ isn’t helpful in a leadership contest.

We lost the last election. The candidates need to tell me how they’re going to rebuild a party that can win the next one.

Diane Abbot
I was more impressed with Diane than I thought I would be – she made good points that we should ‘recapture the civil liberties agenda’, do more for children under the age of 5 to make sure that educational inequalities, and even dropped in a Bonfire of the Vanities reference with regard to so-called Masters of the Universe, which as an English graduate I particularly liked. That said, her first answer and general attitude was all wrong – she didn’t look like she really wanted to be in the room. Verdict: not leadership material.

Ed Balls
You couldn’t argue that Ed Balls isn’t an intelligent man with incredibly strong Labour principles. I’d be more than happy with Balls as our chancellor . However, he just didn’t strike me as very inspiring. He can help write the manifesto, sure. But take that manifesto to the electorate and convince them that his party should win? I wasn’t convinced. Verdict: he wouldn’t be on the ticket if he wasn’t a great politician, but he falls short of the other candidates.

Andy Burnham
I really warmed to Andy Burnham, not really having come across him before. He was the most honest about our recent electoral defeat, admitting that we had made mistakes that we need to come to terms with. (He didn’t actually specify what those mistakes were and how to come to terms with them, of course…)  This is the kind of guy we need around right now, to make us re-evaluate our position and rectify past mistakes. But taking us into the next election and running the country? No. His body language was worrying – sat on the end, he kept leaning away from everyone looking uncomfortable. Verdict: Happily have him around to rebuild, but lack of vision was disappointing.

David Miliband
The ‘obvious’ winner for most people, he seemed a bit aloof. He doesn’t really understand the graduate tax proposal backed by all four other candidates – quite a blow in a youth hustings when he basically accepts the status quo as a system to be tinkered with, not replaced. He has a great idea to train 1,000 future leaders over the course of his campaign – but to then say ‘with the money I’m raising for my campaign’ takes it a little far. Well done, David, you’re the candidate with the most money; do you want a medal? That said, he gave an inspiring summing-up. Verdict: clearly a credible candidate, but he’s not the candidate for me.

Ed Miliband
I’ve seen Ed Miliband speak before on the environment. He’s passionate, committed and inspiring. Where brother David says he wants 1,000 future leaders, Ed wants to build a new grass-roots campaign with a focus, a purpose. That’s how we rebuild a party: not just recruit people, not just train people, but put them to work on an issue they too feel passionate about. Verdict: I’m backing Ed Miliband.

Ed Miliband speaking at a Copenhagen Q&A in Brixton