Will You Be Watching The Labour Leader Bun Fight?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32844277
Who are our Labour friends on here backing?

[retrocop]

Oh dear. I note the Beeb will select the audience.Think I'll have an early night. :-)

[hellywelly4]

Definitely NO!

Just a thought - why isn't Harriet Harman standing for leader - isn't she allowed?

[DTCwordfan]

I thought that the Beeb were supposed to be politically neutral - this is blatant free advertising for the Labour Party, however barking that they are, and should not be allowed.

[Baldric]

There must be some paint drying somewhere that I can watch instead!

[Baldric]

Sorry, for the benefit of Labour Supporters that's ^^^^^ a No!

[Gromit]

Sounds like a borefest of the first order.

// The BBC will select the audience and determine the format of the debate. //

It is a welcome development that the Beeb will be choosing the new leader. If it were left to the Labour Party, they would just elect a other awkward muppet.

[bazwillrun]

"Just a thought - why isn't Harriet Harman standing for leader"

if they elected Harridan Harman as leader they might as well not even bother entering for a national election....kiss of death is a phrase that springs to mind

[Sqad]

Yes.......I shall be watching with interest.

My man has pulled out, but please........not Yvette,

[Peter Pedant]

Hi Sqad ! so ...... you have survived the night in your non-NHS bed ....

[Canary42]

Funny how our Tory friends are obsessed with talking about Labour - understandable I suppose given their Party's personnel.

[ToraToraTora]

Canary illustrates perfectly why the public kicked Labour's ***. Still they snipe from their self appointed intellectual ivory towers. You lost, you are wrong, get it? The voters rejected your policies and attitude. Get your heads out of your *** and change your views then maybe, just maybe the public may see you as something electable.

[Retrochic]

Peter -someone need to tell you Sqad lives ABROAD is getting treated ABROAD because he lives ABROAD and has no intentions (I believe) of coming back to the UK and certain no intentions (I believe) of ever suffering the NHS ;-)

[New Judge]

Why on earth does everything have to be reduced to an "X-Factor" style competition? Can't the Labour Party just hire a room above a small pub and invite all those interested to attend for beer and sandwiches?

Just to clarify a couple of points, the Labour Party has changed its leadership contest voting procedure. Trades Unions do not now get their "block vote". Trade Union members wishing to vote will now have to register individually. However, the election is still to be run under the "Alternative Vote" system (which saw Ed Miliband elected couresy of fourth choice votes last time).

Only about 0.4% of the UK electorate belong to the Labour Party. Why should this borefest be foisted on the rest of us and why should the BBC be hosting the event (along with their "specially selected" audience) which is clearly of direct interest to only a tiny minority of the population.

[New Judge]

About 0.3%, 10CS. (190k Labour, 135k Conservatives. Electorate is about 46.4m). It will be interesting to see if the BBC hosts a similar event when Mr Cameron relinquishes the Tory Leadership.

The article in “The Sunday Guardian” is interesting. I don’t think many people blame the Labour government for the banking crisis. It is amusing that Mr Keegan cites the cause of the UK’s woes as “…the neglect of the manufacturing industry that began under Margaret Thatcher and was most certainly continued under Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne.”…

Amusing because he does not mention the thirteen years in between the last Tory government and the 2010 Coalition. I suppose the manufacturing industries must have been doing alright during that time.

Whilst few people blame the Brown administration for the banking crisis many do blame it for the parlous state that the UK economy was in and the excessive public spending which took place in the prior years. Of course public spending was out of control in the years prior to the banking crisis. In 2004 it was £455bn; by 2008 it had risen to £582bn – an increase of 27%. This was accompanied by a ludicrous increase in the public payroll headcount with much of that recruitment being to positions - to put it kindly - of highly questionable value. By contrast in 2010 it was £673bn and by 2014 this had risen to £713bn – less than 6% increase.

I’m not sure who Mr Keegan is trying to kid with his article particularly when he suggests that Labour’s biggest failing was to dispel the “Big Lie” that public spending was out of control under their stewardship – especially when many senior Labour politicians now admit as much. He’s certainly not fooling me.