9th May 2010Uncertainty, Certainty

Sunday morning and the fevered speculation continues. The Tories and Lib Dems will continue to meet and in all likelihood they will make some kind of agreement that enables the Tories to govern and Cameron to walk through the door of Number Ten as soon as possible this week.

Senior voices from both parties have been out and about on the morning news programmes, making it pretty clear that they consider a deal inevitable, without revealing exactly on what grounds that might happen.

In other news, The Observer is gleefully reporting rumblings in the Tory party, with anonymous but senior Tories arguing that Cameron’s fondness for his small circle and little consultation with the wider party was tolerated when outright victory was on the cards, but not now. Senior backbench Conservatives are gravely worried by Cameron rushing headlong into collaboration with the Lib Dems and particularly the prospect of giving ground on electoral reform.

Meanwhile back in Downing Street, a Mr G. Brown is busy running the country and worrying about the deficit. Despite myriad voices from the left arguing for a grand coalition of progressive parliamentary forces, it seems very unlikely to happen and certainly could not be built around Brown. It now seems that Labour’s priority must be to elect itself a new leader and begin to rebuild and refocus on its values and priorities for the coming parliamentary term which, let’s be frank, could last no more than six months to a year if a Tory-Lib Dem arrangement proves vulnerable. News has it that David Miliband and Ed Balls are already planning for a leadership battle. Let’s be frank, I like Ed Balls enormously and I think he could be a very good, if recently converted, left-of-centre leader for the Labour party but my money’s on Miliband, with Alan Johnson having already hinted to close friends that it’s time to hand the torch over to the next generation.

Those newspapers that moved their support from Labour to the Lib Dems are now full of comment suggesting that a progressive anti-Tory parliamentary coalition is still a possibility. Frankly, no. I cannot see it happening and those journalists and commentators so willing to ride the Cleggmania wave are looking a little bit sorry for themselves now.

However, even in all of this mess, I think this is the best opportunity for Labour to rediscover its political mojo, to return to its representative roots and find a clear voice with a new leader. I even thought that I might be willing to help rather than sitting around writing about it. That would mean joining the party, something I haven’t considered since I wrote to Roy Hattersley when I was thirteen and asked if I could join up. He kindly wrote back and told me that I had to wait until I was fifteen. Oh Roy, by fifteen I was disillusioned and never considered it again.

Is it realistic to dream of a revitalised Labour party, returned to its roots on the left?