Comment Central - Times Online - WBLG

Baroness Scotland: What is Labour doing?

What are they waiting for?

If Baroness Scotland's housekeeper is seeking advice from Max Clifford, it follows, surely, that she is going to tell a story at variance to the Attorney General's.

It seems unlikely that Baroness Scotland can survive this, but even if she does it will involve days of bad publicity.

And those days - probably from Sunday onwards - will coincide with Labour's conference.

Surely Number 10 needs to do something about this today. Or are they just going to wait for the custard pie, currently arcing its way towards their face, to hit?

I just don't get these people.

Marbury, Peter Hyman and the Labour leadership

Marbury ever a source of interesting facts and original ideas, provides one such on the identity of Labour's next leader but one.

He writes:

I have a long odds (like, 250-1) suggestion: Peter Hyman. It's probable that most of you, especially American readers, haven't have heard of him. After all, he's not even a politician.

Hyman was an adviser to Tony Blair and an influential presence in the New Labour project until 2003. At that point, unsatisfied with being a political aide, he left Downing Street to become a teacher, and now teaches at an inner London comprehensive.

He still commentates on politics from the sidelines, and is a strong, articulate presence on TV. I wouldn't be surprised if he plans to throw himself back into the scrum at some point.

Peter is very serious about his teaching and it would take a good deal to lure him away.

But I never appear with him without learning something from his comments. He is also very ethical. I am sure he still has a big role to play in Labour politics.

Your Alan Johnson reader

Everything you need to know about the bookmakers' favourite to succeed Brown...

Website: http://www.alanjohnson.org/

Voting record: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/alan_johnson/kingston_upon_hull_west_and_hessle#votingrecord

Nina Montagu-Smith in the Telegraph, 20 October 2004: Anger as new pensions minister denies crisis

Alan Johnson, the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, yesterday angered pensioner groups and workers whose pensions have been lost by claiming that the UK is not undergoing a pensions crisis.

Paul Routledge in New Statesman, 29 November 2004: Profile – Alan Johnson

He was orphaned in childhood and doesn't have an O-level to his name. Could this former union baron become the next PM?

Richard Garner in The Independent, 11 May 2006: Alan Johnson: The return of Mr Smooth

Very few people in the education world believe they are likely to get a raw deal with the accession of Alan Johnson to the post of Education Secretary

Simon Hoggart in The Guardian, 16 May 2007: Real Human takes joystick

Alan Johnson launched his campaign for deputy leader of the Labour party yesterday. He is running as a real human being...

Chris Hastings in The Telegraph, 07 October 2007: Alan Johnson ‘not good enough’ to be PM

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary did not challenge Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership because he felt he was "not good enough" to be prime minister

Marie Woolfe and Jonathan Oliver in The Sunday Times, 27 January, 2008: Minister in row over cash gift

The health secretary Alan Johnson became the latest cabinet minister to be embroiled in a scandal over donors last night after he was accused of accepting cash through a proxy.

John Rentoul in The Independent, 8 June 2008: A nasty case of Utopian dogma

Where is the Johnson who was a moderniser at Education, reforming student finance by ditching the rigid dogma of a supposedly egalitarian system that had become elitist?

Alan Johnson in The Times, 25 May 2009, There is an alternative to our damaged system

Britain must have root-and-branch reform of its constitution — and a referendum on proportional representation

Polly Toynbee in The Guardian, 29 May 2009: Labour’s last chance: oust Brown, then bring in PR

Ah, Alan Johnson. Here is Labour's one and only piece of good luck and good timing. How ­unexpected at a time like this to find a likable new leader around whom they can coalesce

Philip Webster in The Times, 4 June 2009: Alan Johnson: the favourite to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader

The bookmakers’ strong favourite to succeed Gordon Brown will be watching and waiting this weekend, wondering whether the one chance that he will ever have of leading Labour will come his way.

Can a Prime Minister bow out gracefully?

Philip Collins and the multimedia team have been pondering the many ways in which Gordon could leave Downing Street. Will he follow in the footsteps of Wilson? Or Callaghan? Or perhaps Thatcher? And what's the likelihood he gets the second ever standing ovation to be given to a departing PM in the Commons?

Gordon: the Movie

The Daily Beast has created this brilliant slideshow of the actors who should play the key roles in a hypothetical movie of the Madoff scandal.

But if the Titanic proved that sinking ships, and the battles to save them, make for hit Hollywood blockbusters, then surely it’s only a matter of time before ‘Gordon Brown: the Movie’ hits the big screen.

Though Sarah Brown once loyally suggested George Clooney should play her husband in the film of his life, I am less convinced by the comparison…

Can you think of the perfect actor to play Tom Watson (Oliver Hardy and Oliver Reed both being dead)?

Suggestions, please, of actors best suited to playing him, the PM and other members of the Brown inner circle...

No, she hasn't

Harriet Harman's office calls to inform me that they have asked Labour Home to remove the comment that suggested that she intervened in the Wolverhampton selection.

They say that she did nothing of the sort.

 I have updated my post accordingly.

Labour's problem when the crisis passes

Over on his excellent blog, Matthew Taylor (the Blair one not the Lib Dem) reflects on what the new political season has to offer. And concludes:

The crisis may suit the Labour Government and it might benefit from any signs of recovery

I don't think these follow.

Crisis can indeed suit an incumbent Government and, indeed, this one clearly was helped by it. But once the crisis passes, voters are left to deal with the consequences.

Once there are signs of recovery, that small glimmer of hope extending out into the future makes voters feel less risk averse.

Time for a change becomes more attractive and no time for a novice less so.

Has a leader speech ever changed public opinion?

This morning The Times is sceptical about the impact of Gordon Brown's speech on public opinion. But this leads to a different question - has there ever been a leader speech that did change public opinion?

There have been moments of high drama, sure. But actual speeches that changed opinion?

Suggestions anybody?

Bananarama...

Benedict Brogan has a story about Geoff Hoon's near-death experience up in Manchester. The culprit? A dropped banana skin.

Now, far be it from us to indulge in conspiracy theories, but who's been spotted brandishing a banana near the Conference Centre? The plot thickens.

Gordon Brown is no good with the media...

...so why not turn to the genius of the photo call?