Lynne Featherstone

So – it’s to be a coronation! Guess the clunking fist from the future Prime Minister and the spineless consent from the ranks of Labour MPs (the same spineless ones that voted through the war) will deny members their say, the party a proper debate and Gordon a mandate.

It would have been so much better if David Miliband or Charles Clarke or anyone had had the balls to fight Gordon. Even John McDonnell would have been better than nothing and no one. It feels wrong and will do so unless and until there is a General Election. And Gordon (middle name cautious) is unlikely to go for it immediately. Unless he really is new Gordon!

Gordon’s first (and only) hustings saw him present himself as ‘new’ Gordon, for a ‘new’ Britain, with ‘new’ ideas and ‘new’ challenges, etc. etc. ‘Scuse me for thinking he was the bloke what was there all along, hiding head below parapet whilst signing the cheques. Iraq, tuition fees, cutting benefits for the disabled, tube privatisation, and on and on. He was there, at the centre of power, all the time. Not so new Gordon!

What can we expect under Gordon? More announcement, re-announcements and then announcement for a third time of the same pots of money – and a dark, brooding, master pulling the central strings from behind closed doors. I hope I’m wrong, but …