Willie for Leader! (05/08/15)

Where is Gordon Brown when you need him?

The former prime minister is regarded, in some quarters, as an intellectual heavyweight within the Labour party, one of the key architects of the New Labour project who understood the need for his party to make itself electable again.

But as Labour flirts with the idea of electing Jeremy Corbyn as its new leader, Gordon is nowhere to be seen or heard, even though the former Iron Chancellor is well placed to explain that Labour needs a Marxist economic programme like it needs an extra hole in its head at the moment.

Alan Johnson, the avuncular and well-liked former Labour minister, has come off the fence with an article in The Guardian calling on Labour members to end the Corbyn 'madness' and you can read what he has to say via the following link:     

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/04/labour-yvette-cooper-jeremy-corbyn-alan-johnson

In effect Johnson is arguing that Jeremy Corbyn is simply not up to the job of leading the Labour party or becoming a Labour prime minister in 2020, which is a devastating comment coming from some who is not normally associated with personal attacks on his political friends or foes.

I agree with Johnson's assessment although I would put things this way - if the Labour party were to elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader it would be like appointing the school janitor as the school's new head teacher.

Now I can see what fun some of the kids can see in Groundskeeper Willie replacing Principal Skinner, but on sober reflection I've no doubt that even Homer Simpson would take a very different view.