How about Harriet?

Listening to the Today Programme a thought struck me that had never entered my head before. Could Harriet Harman be the next leader of the Labour Party?

Yes, I know, but hear me out.

What makes Ms Harman seem an unlikely successor to media pundits is that media pundits wouldn''t pick her. I most certainly wouldn't. But we don't have a vote in any leadership election.

There are two reasons why Ms Harman stands a chance.

The choice of leader will be partly determined by the analysis party members have of the reason why Labour is doing badly. This analysis need not make any sense to outsiders. Labour turned to Foot and the Conservative Party to Hague and later to IDS partly because they saw things differently to everyone else.

The Tory Party after 1997 did not understand how it was seen. It believed it had lost because it was not robustly and consistently right wing enough. Hague appealed because he was young, lucid, and acceptable to the right. At the same time he represented the future because he hadn't a factional (wet v dry) past.

I think it quite likely that Labour members will be looking for a more left wing candidate as leader, not another straight moderniser. That makes it hard for Purnell and even for Miliband.

The second reason that Harman stands a chance is that she has personal appeal to Labour members. She is good on television (her answers aren't great but she presents well) and she has real politics (there are issues she cares about and she has made a difference on them).

We don't need to speculate whether this is the case. We know that it is because Ms Harman won the deputy leadership against what seemed to be the odds. The Blairite came last.

After Gordon Brown, a photogenic southern woman, on the left but not of it, with the unions but not in them, would be a very strong contender I would have thought.

Comments

[Peter Briffa]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jun/08/comment.politics

It would be worth it just to watch Polly Toynbee going completely bananas.

[Mr Eugenides]

Please let this be true, Daniel. Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

[Leon]

Funny, I thought exactly this the other day while pondering who would be a good care taker leader until after the next election...

[Glenn]

Harman good on television? Only if you enjoy being talked down to by an arrogant, patronising milk monitor.

[Marcus Cotswell]

So, Danny, which was it - late night watching the result come on, or a good (liquid) lunch? or both?

[Stephen]

Personally, I voted for Harriet Harman purely as a balance to Gordon Brown. If she stood against Miliband or Purnell, I would not vote for her as leader, but would be quite happy for her to stay as deputy.

[Rob]

I heard her this morning and thought the same thing. Also, and I don't suppose this matters greatly, the time she stood in for Gordon at PM she really put him in the shade.

[Andrew]

Well, sure, yeah (Oh f...) you could do that.

Another woman PM.

And I'll have left the country for a tax haven before she's whumped into the Number 10 sofa. I can't turn ou the lights as I leave Britain because I'll be moving too fast.

(She's even more of a class warrior.)

[andy kirkham]

You have to be joking ,this woman has to be one of the most patronising twits in any political party which is saying something. The woman is the best at suggesting stupid idiotic political ideas best summed up by her nickname Harperson.

[J Stuart]

Hang on a minute, Harman has zero credibility and perfoms terribly on TV. Just because she is slightly less awful and incapable than the other NuLabour bunnies, it doesn't mean she deserves to be rewarded for that.

[yucca]

im afraid i have to reply to this silly post with a silly (but hopefully not inappropriate) comment:

did anybody see the footage of Tessa Jowell thirty years younger last night on the bbc by-election special?

she looked good, didn't she?

[Tapestry]

no sign that harriet wants it. the MPs breaking ranks are motivated. simpson. mcdonnell. stringer.

they are all Lisbon referendum rebels, if more of the eurosceptics break ranks, gordon's troubles will really start, as these guys mean it.

[Victoria]

It would be so good if the responses to Danial's blog were just a little bit less predictable. It is 2008! The same men (Yucca 16.48, & Andrew 16.00) who make boring, neanderthal & obviously mysognistic comments in response to Daniel's article, would unblinkingly write comments on an article about women's rights in Saudi, for example, pompously boasting about how advanced the UK is and describing them as peasants. Time to get a grip please gentlemen (!) I hate to point out the obvious but women constitute the majority of the population & are completely under-represented in Parliament.

[ijak]

Her election as Deputy Leader would, I guess, confirm your comparisons with old Labour and the defeated Tories - the election of someone who is totally out of sync with the aspirations of Joe or Jane Public. As observed here, she epitomises the condescension of the Labour party and government, and adds a very heavy dose of class envy. Under new Labour the nasty smell left by the old type of socialism was covered by a whiff of Blairite perfume but now he has gone the old bad smell is still here but without a cover. What many of us seem to be fed up with is the emergence of this political class which has attempted to secure for itself and its ilk complete control over the citizens of the UK, delivering a politically correct society which binge drinks every Saturday night and has the highest rate of STDs among teenagers in Europe, and runs an ethical foreign policy that engages in bloody conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, yet at the same time refuses to accept any responsibility for the ills it has created or at least presided over. That the government has lost its grip on economics is the moment that the crowds woke up to the fact that the emperor has no clothes on. Yes, no doubt Labour will elect Harman, but it will simply underscore how un-reformable Labour is, and how vacuous the New Labour project has been from the start. And it should, hopefully, secure their complete annihilation at the next election.

[Unrepentant]

One can only hope. The best guarantee for a Labour wipe-out that could ever be imagined.

[Unrepentant]

One can only hope. The best guarantee for a Labour wipe-out that could ever be imagined.

[Ben Elford]

She would be a bizarre choice, but with the Labour party so completely disconnected from reality and from the way that normal people think, almost anything is possible.

Perhaps Labour's contempt for voters would argue for Harriet Harman being a favourite. Who knows?

[richard]

You've got to be joking. What sealed it for me was her proposal that women should have a defence to murder in the courts that she wanted to deny men. She isn't fit to represent the whole nation. She is basically sexist in a way which has been repugnat ever since the sixties (except in her small clique). A PM needs to be a bigger, better person than she will ever be.Apart from that , as her colleagues often observe, she hasn't the intellectual capacity to hold the post though certainly she has the ambition.

[richard]

You have to be joking. This is the woman who proposed a defence to murder for women which she wanted to deny men. In other words, where a woman committed a murder in identical circumstances to a man, Ms Harman wanted the woman to be acquitted and the man convicted. That's the sort of thinking going on inside that brain. It is fundamentally sexist and partisan. She isn't fit to be PM

[Tam Earl-Aine]

Did you really write that she is good on television? Assuming that you are not taking the mickey and really do believe that Harman is a serious politician, I can only say that she comes across to me as a lying, grasping, self-serving, incompetent, special pleading embarrassment to women everywhere. However, since I never want to see these NL kleptos in power ever again, I hope she does become leader of the Labour party and is condemned to spend the rest of her political life talking drivel on BBC Question Time.

[Yuck Fooey]

Photogenic!

Finkelstein even you are hotter than this chip shop woman

[Kath]

Oh yes, please, Harriet as the next Labour leader!! The Tories will be in power within days.

[Kath]

Oh yes, please, Harriet as the next Labour leader!! The Tories will be in power within days.

[Ken]

Actually not that much of stretch. She has been loyal to Gordon Brown. She went and batted for him defending the indefensible 10p both before and after the u-turn. She wont lead the revolt, but the stalking donkey doesnt win the race. She is popular with the party hacks and she can claim to be not Brown or Blair.

Sadly for her, she is a useless moron. I can see the Labour party turning to her and finding that they had traded in a Trabant for a push bike. It would make me laugh though.

[Niall Rowantree]

Danny,

I have thought this for some time but one thing I think you failed to point out that weighs heavily in favour of Harman is the fact that none of the young pretenders will be keen to accept the poisoned chalice of Labour party leadership.

Realistically they know that the writing is on the wall for Labour and a general election victory is extremely remote. The Millibands, Balls' and Purnells will be loathe to stand for leader if it means riding out 6/7 years potentially more in opposition.

[Ben Elford]

Victoria: unfortunately for your argument, the Labour government has peopled the front bench with women whose main qualification for senior office is that they are women.

The demonstrably dim Harriet Harman is a good illustration of the general rule. Her campaign for the deputy leadership was based on the USP of being a woman, and little else. It's hardly 'neanderthal' to observe that she simply isn't very bright, or very capable.

[Derek Bevan]

Lets hope not.But,she is the best looking the others are so UGLY.

[Mike]

Yes get her in there the demise of NuLabour would then be totally assured.

[Chris]

The melting of the "Wicked Witch" in the USA shows what happens when a man-hating feminist tries to get elected.

Men just will not vote for her, and why should we?

After 11 years, we have seen very clearly the role she has for men in NuLab's Feminist Gulag: tax-paying wage slaves; mobile sperm banks; and walking wallets.

No thanks.

And no vote for the Feminista.

[popeye]

A posh totty,who wanted to be noticed,clearly she could never make it in the glamour business,so she went into politics.However,her as prime minister would rid us forever of nu-labour.

[Asmodeus]

So ANDREW doesn't like the idea of Harperson taking over.

Why not Hazel Blears? She would have us reaching for the zapper even faster.

[Guido Fawkes]

A Labour insider said this to me last week - I didn't understand. Suppose anything is possible..

[A Heloise]

I cannot believe the level of outright misogyny that people use to comment on this article. Why do you see this politician in such a negative light simply because she has been born a different shape? Would you consider it acceptable to lambast a politician because of their colour? No? Has it occurred to you that actually to have made it where she is she must be intelligent, articulate and possess a genuine conviction for how society ought to look for the better? If you have a problem with intelligent women in power why don't you just admit you think women are somehow inferior? And as for people who see her as a 'man hating feminist:' you obviously have a very poor, backward and ill educated understanding of what feminism means. It does not preach hatred of men, but it does work against abject hostility and poor treatment of people just because they have been born a different shape. Wake up, grow up and check your facts: you clearly have no comprehension of even basic understandings of how gender is socially constructed within a patriarchal system.

[Terry]

Sorry, but it is the old champagne socialist thing with me as far as this lady is concerned. I remember the furore Ms Harman invoked by advocating state schooling for the children of everyone else, while arranging to educate her own privately. Duplicituous?

[james]

Harman is a sexist - fact, so she should not hold any position of power.

Would be great for the Tories tho

[fnusnuank]

Harriet HarmTheNation would be perfect.

For utterly destroying the Labour party, so yes please.

[laiconna]

Perhaps her delivery isn't all that it can be.. but I think that will come with time. Harriet Harman could be next in line after Gordon Brown's term is up.

Tony Blair might still be Prime minister had he not aligned himself with George W. That may have been his fatal flaw.

[Roger]

If ever there was a reason not to push woman into power simply because they are woman this is it.

[Chris Wigley]

I believe it was the late Gwyneth Dunwoody who referred to Harman as believin that she had a "devine right to rule". I find her manner both patronising and am frankly amazed that she would be considered, in the Blair government her ministerial talents did not shine. Even Gordon Brown has given her the non-job, Leader of the House.

[Caroline Swift]

Member of Parliament since 1982 (25 years) and 65% of the vote at the last General Election. She must be doing something right. Constantly working to improve the lot of the 'underdog' - for which read women in many cases. Read about her working background and her achievements before making such unpleasant, ill-informed comments.

[jonmer]

"Harman good on television? Only if you enjoy being talked down to by an arrogant, patronising milk monitor."

Just what the British love, Remember Maggie?

[Xavier]

She reminds me of Edith Cresson, prime minister of France for 9 months under Mitterand.

She was a disaster as well. Small brain too. Bad MP also. Very bad PM.

Few can remember, thanks god!

[mo]

Met Daniel once at a concert and thought he was too nice to be a Tory. Harriet would suit that party, but would not bring Labour many votes. Too lightweight. Leaders these days HAVE TO HAVE CHARISMA!!!!!

[nat]

Fantastic !
How about having Hazel Blears or Dawn Primarolo as Deputy PM ?
If that's not dream ticket, my name's not David Cameron !

[JS, London]

I've voted Labour all my life but Harman would be just about the last straw for me. Her every utterance seems to revolve around women as victims/demonising men. She's a member of a government that spends eight times as much on women's healthcare as on men's but - how surprising - this is one blatant inequality about she appears supremely unconcerned.

[Rhys Jaggar]

Polite society's answer might be: 'No thank you!'

I believe Merv Hughes' remarks on the cricket field to Sir Vivian Richards might be more apposite in this case.........

[AT, NORTHAMPTON]

Would this be the Harriett Harman who sent her child to a selective secondary school? Labour members must have short memories - or will the new policies include the reintroduction of grammar schools?

[Kash]

Funny how criticism of Harriet Harman all of a sudden becomes 'misogyny'.

Typical feminist whinging that is bankrupt of intellectual substance and obvious in its disconnect from reality.

She's an excellent choice for the Tories, though.

[PAUL]

Oh Daniel, I have never laughed so much in years.

I'll bring you back to reality about our Harriet.

1. Harman is a sexist politician.
2. Harman is a toff in disguise.
3. Harman is not photogenic.
4. Harman has never done a hard day's work in her life.
5. Harman is not good on TV (unless you like cringing behind a cushion)
6. Harman cares about real politics only if it benefits women.

I could go on, but talking about this woman is boring me senseless.

One thing Harman would guarantee Labour if she became leader, is that they would never return to government. Hang on a minute...

[John P]

Daniel's having a laugh folks, because only a nutter would dream this up - and he surely has a better I.Q.?. I have studied the women labour promote, and am disgusted by their pure inadequacy. Where do they find these people, in the political dole queue?.

[John P]

Reading "Heloise's"comment, it's so so easy to understand that women hust cannot see the blatantly obvious. Dare to critisise a female and she hits the roof. Apparently all women are perfect in every way. Yeah, right. If Harman represents good, logical thinking by a female, then God help us. I think it's about time men really woke up and shoved the feminist attitudes back up into the realms of reality.

[steve moxon]

Harriet Harman has shown very clearly in her speeeches about domestic violence and rape that she is a sex-hate fascist of the most blatant kind.
Given that only 10-15% of women work full-time and continuously and of these only a quarter are careerists, then the likes of Harman even irrespective of her politcal correctess, is the most unrepresentative sort of person you culd possibly have to represent anybody. Perfect for the Labour Party then.
(Steve Moxon, author of The Woman Racket)

[JT]

Hee Hee Hee! A great idea! What a laff! Almost as funny as Gordons chin.

To be honest, I dont know the lady, Harriet, well enough. But that is criticism of a sort, because she has not made an impression.

Labour has to show that it is the party that lobbies first the public interest before any special interests, such as the Brown government's "nuclear croneyism". If it were genuine, any party would do this by bringing in democratic voting system (STV), as in Wales, the Sunderland report and the Richard report requested and were rebuffed.

David Cameron can get away with business as usual but the public will tolerate it no longer from the party in power for over a decade. To survive electorally, Labour have to have a change of heart with a
change of leadership untainted by failed vested interests. The public's cost of living must be reduced against profiteering on basic necessities of life and the burdens of ineffective bureaucracy, which Labour has always prefered to effective democracy.

[Roger Davies]

If ZaNuLab vote for this Harpy it certainly will make Call-Me-Dave's day. The woman has all the charm of a modern Medusa.

[Stephen]

As a Tory supporter, I can only say the next best person to Gordon Brown as leader of the Labour party to help deliver the total and permanent electoral rout of this dangerous, arrogant and utterly disconnected-with-reality government, would be Harriet Harperson. How can any sane human being see her as a leader of the country? Please God, let them do it.

[Danny]

If Harman is elected leader I'm leaving the Labour Party, she's polarising, incompetent, policy light, prone to arrests for speeding and wants to make sure I, as a male, will never have the chance to stand in my local constituency. Labour's all-women shortlists have banned me from that dream, outright discrimination.