Haw Maw
The knives are out for Ed Miliband apparently - which seems a tad unfair as he's only few months into the job - as opposition leader and top banana in the Labour party.
I didn't have a vote in Labour's leadership election - though many people had two, three and even four - as a result of party's crazy electoral college system.
If I did have a vote, I would probably have voted for Ed's brother David - as the majority of individual party members did - and the majority of MPs as well.
But no matter what's done is done - even if the new leader has been foisted on the Labour party by a handful of boring trade union bosses - who 'united' to put their man in the hot seat.
The problem for leaders of any political party is that you've got to hit the ground running - lead from the front, not the back - and brook no nonsense from your team.
Ed Miliband made a good start the other week - when he announced that he was going to reform Labour's electoral college - yes the very same system that propelled him into office.
Ed's plan was to open things up to the public in some way - admittedly unspecified - but perhaps along the lines of the 'open' selection contests - used sometimes by the Democrat and Republican parties in the USA.
An interesting proposal - if a bit woolly - but no sooner had he floated the idea than he was slapped down by his own shadow Chancellor - Allan Johnston - a former union boss himself.
Johnson flatly rejected the plan - on the basis that it would enable members of other political parties to have a say - in who becomes Labour leader.
Yet that is precisely what happens now - in the trade union section of the electoral college.
During the Labour leadership election there were regular reports - from SNP and Lib Dem supporting trade union members.
Making fun of the fact that they had been sent a ballot paper - to choose between the Milliband brothers, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott - even though they supported other parties.
The obvious solution, of course, is to move to a system of One Member One Vote - which would put an end to all this nonsense.
Fair and democratic for sure, but it would lead to no end of Haw Maw in the Labour party - because it would put the gas of the union bosses at a peep.
I didn't have a vote in Labour's leadership election - though many people had two, three and even four - as a result of party's crazy electoral college system.
If I did have a vote, I would probably have voted for Ed's brother David - as the majority of individual party members did - and the majority of MPs as well.
But no matter what's done is done - even if the new leader has been foisted on the Labour party by a handful of boring trade union bosses - who 'united' to put their man in the hot seat.
The problem for leaders of any political party is that you've got to hit the ground running - lead from the front, not the back - and brook no nonsense from your team.
Ed Miliband made a good start the other week - when he announced that he was going to reform Labour's electoral college - yes the very same system that propelled him into office.
Ed's plan was to open things up to the public in some way - admittedly unspecified - but perhaps along the lines of the 'open' selection contests - used sometimes by the Democrat and Republican parties in the USA.
An interesting proposal - if a bit woolly - but no sooner had he floated the idea than he was slapped down by his own shadow Chancellor - Allan Johnston - a former union boss himself.
Johnson flatly rejected the plan - on the basis that it would enable members of other political parties to have a say - in who becomes Labour leader.
Yet that is precisely what happens now - in the trade union section of the electoral college.
During the Labour leadership election there were regular reports - from SNP and Lib Dem supporting trade union members.
Making fun of the fact that they had been sent a ballot paper - to choose between the Milliband brothers, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott - even though they supported other parties.
The obvious solution, of course, is to move to a system of One Member One Vote - which would put an end to all this nonsense.
Fair and democratic for sure, but it would lead to no end of Haw Maw in the Labour party - because it would put the gas of the union bosses at a peep.
