Labour Party renewal – what next?

As I’m getting over my disappointment that Alan Johnson won’t run for Labour leader I’m pondering what the future holds and how we can use the next few years to renew, regroup and refresh ourselves.

Firstly, we need a long leadership election. We don’t need to be hasty, Harriet will make a fine interim leader. My personal preference is for a leader that isn’t overly associated with the old Brownite/Blairite factional slips, which was always bigger in the media than it was in reality.

In opposition Labour can afford to have a vigorous and exciting policy debate that reminds us of our core values enshrined in the new Clause 4 of our rule book.

But, we shouldn’t stop at policy. Before we can do that properly I seriously believe we need root and branch reform of the Labour Party itself. We’re still based on party structure that has hardly changed for over a 100 years. This needs to change, to change fundamentally. We must question the very existence of branches, constituency parties, district parties, regional boards, the National Policy Forum and the NEC.

As for who to support as leader, I think it’s fool-hardy to start backing potential leaders before any have even officially declared. However, I can easily rule out Ed Balls for two reasons.

First and foremost he is far too divisive a figure and responsible for far too much that has gone wrong in the Labour Party. He simply cannot represent a fresh start for the party.

His style of politics, shown time and time again in TV interviews and speeches, is that of the playground bully. The problem with the Labour Party over the last few years, wasn’t just Brown, it was Balls.

Ed Balls represents the politics of the Twentieth Century, to borrow a slogan from the past we need to go forward, not back.

Secondly on a more mundane note, his majority is far to slim. We can not have a leader that will be subject to another ‘castration’ strategy. A new voting system won’t help Ed and a leader can’t do a chicken run.

In the absence of Alan Johnson on the ballot paper I’d like to see a candidate who will offer the party that opportunity for a totally fresh start and is open to embracing new ideas that emerge, not being hidebound or associated with policies from the past.

UPDATE: