Post Mortem Continues - Time for "Next Labour"

The Sunday papers are predictably full of the post election post mortem. Column inches (or centimeters, depending on whether you are pro European or or not) are taken up talking about

• how long The Coalition will last
• who was to blame for the failure of the Lib / Lab talks
• the Labour leadership

I hope The Coalition lasts for the “fixed term”. If it collapses too soon I fear an outright Tory victory in the subsequent election while Labour are still in the process of renewal - whatever that looks like.

As to who was responsible for the failed Lib / Lab talks then the blame is being shared around. There are suggestions that Clegg was playing a clever game of keeping his options open but all along wanted to do a deal with Cameron and the Tory's. It seems pretty clear that Vince Cable preferred a deal with Labour.

Writing in The Observer, Charles Kennedy says that although he was “keen to explore the possibilites of a so-called “progressive coalition”.... there was insufficient reciprocal will within the Labour party”.

The Observer also suggests that a deal between Labour and the LibDems was possible on things like scrapping identity cards, plans for the third runway at Heathrow and even considering the £10k tax threshold (if ways could be found to bridge the estimated £17bn cost).

But it seems that cuts and electoral reform left the two parties miles apart. Which to me now seems at odds with what was being reported at the beginning of last week when offered immediate legislation on voting reform.

The issue of Labour not having a moral mandate to govern was reportedely too much for the likes John Reid, David Blunkett and Jack Straw.

So perhaps Clegg wanted to be seen to be reaching out to Labour to try and secure even more concessions from Cameron's team. It will be a mistake to underestimate this man's ambition and thirst for power - in the national interest of course.

So what about the Labour leadership – as David Miliiband says “New Labour is not the future. I'm interested now in Next Labour”.

I think that David Milliband will appeal more to “Blairite” members and Ed Milliband, Ed Balls and John Cruddas to “Brownites” . OK, OK I know the Party is keen to ditch “Blairite” and “Brownite” from the vocabulary and see the candidates for themselves - and I will I promise.

I missed an opportunity yesterday to be out with my MP, Ed Balls, in the streets of Morley to say thank you to the voters for their continuing support. There was also a social last night for local Party workers. Perhaps if I had been there I might have had a Bloggers scoop this morning - who knows.

Mike