The Team directly responsible for the Iraq War <\/del> \/ selling off UK public services to private companies<\/del> \/ destroying civil liberties<\/del> \/ turning at least a blind eye to torture<\/del> losing the last election really haven’t got the message have they?<\/p>\n

Mandelson<\/a> and Blair <\/a>are telling Labour party members – through the privileged medium of the public press – who to vote for in the upcoming election. Well, who not<\/strong> to vote for, anyway. And that is a category that seems to include everyone except David Miliband….. They both regard a potential win by Ed Miliband as a potential electoral disaster. <\/p>\n

But then they are such popular chaps, these two – Blair and Mandelson…. <\/p>\n

Any remarks by Blair will be a mixed blessing for David Miliband: Blair has not been forgiven by many Labour activists for the Iraq war and the involvement of the private sector in public services. From the Guardian<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, all the candidates united in publicly expressing distaste for Mandelson only two months ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former foreign secretary David Miliband, who is believed to be Mandelson’s preferred candidate for the party leadership, described the memoirs as “destructive and self-destructive”.
\nHe compared Mandelson’s appearance in a TV advert for the book to that of Bond villain Enst Blofeld, saying all the former minister, nicknamed the Prince of Darkness, needed was a white cat to stroke.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And he’s<\/strong> Mandelson’s chosen candidate….<\/p>\n

I can detect only minimal difference between Millidum and Millidee. A conspiracy theorist might even suggest that Blair & Mandelson’s support for Milliband_A was just a cunning ruse designed to leverage (;-) the mass force of Party members’ anti-Blair&Mandelson revulsion to ensure that Miliband_B was elected.<\/p>\n

.. Mandelson said anyone who tried to take Labour back to the era before Blair’s election as leader in 1994 would wreck the party’s chances of a swift return to power. (from the Guardian)<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(I didn’t even know that any of the candidates had a time machine. )<\/p>\n

This implies that the Labour party that is just power-seeking machine. What is supposed to be the point of seeking power? Pre-Blair Labour supporters might have said something about social justice. The Blairite camp would just snigger at your naivete for even posing the question.
\nIn a video on the Guardian’s website,<\/a> Diane Abbott talked about the massive contrast in campaign funding between her campaign (a couple of volunteers and a \u00a31000 in the bank) and Miliband_A’s. He, on the other hand, has received over \u00a3200,000.<\/a> Plus the poisoned-chalice free support of the New Labour big guns, of course.<\/p>\n

Spot the odd one out: Candidate’s voting records…..
\nDiane Abbott<\/a>
\nDavid Milliband<\/a>
\nEd Milliband<\/a>
\nEd Balls<\/a>
\nAndy Burnham<\/a><\/p>\n

Mmm. Only one<\/strong> of these candidates hasn’t spent the past few years kissing leadership butt and supporting the sort of policies that have brought the Labour Party into such disrepute among its natural supporters.<\/p>\n

There’s one candidate with clean hands. And (simulated surprise) she doesn’t have big money from big business. <\/p>\n

As Andy Hamilton said on Have I Got News For You last year (from memory)…<\/p>\n

“I can’t be doing with these new metric politicians like the Millibands. I much preferred the old imperial ones like Michael Foot..” <\/p>\n

Share this:<\/h3>

• <\/span>Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
• <\/span>Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
• More<\/span><\/a><\/li>
• <\/li><\/ul>
  • <\/span>Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
  • <\/span>Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
  • <\/li>
  • <\/span>Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
  • <\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Team directly responsible for the Iraq War \/ selling off UK public services to private companies \/ destroying civil liberties \/ turning at least a blind eye to torture losing the last election really haven’t got the message have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

    Share this:<\/h3>

    • <\/span>Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
    • <\/span>Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
    • More<\/span><\/a><\/li>
    • <\/li><\/ul>
      • <\/span>Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
      • <\/span>Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
      • <\/li>
      • <\/span>Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li>
      • <\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[9,3,6,10],"tags":[3867,3864,3861,3863,2907,2419,2241,3862,3866,2817,3865,174],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pnUcF-Nw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3070"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3076,"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070\/revisions\/3076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whydontyou.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}