Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Harriet Where Art Thou?

As Harriet Harman has been elected Deputy Leader by the Labour Party in place of John Prescott, she should now be given his old post of Deputy Prime Minister. Apart from the Jon Cruddas camp, that is what we saw the contest as being about.

This is about the rights of the membership of the Electoral College. Whether Harriet is any use is a secondary consideration.

Nor should Deputy Leaders (whether Deputy Prime Minister or not) also Chair the Labour Party. No-one can neutrally Chair meetings and even give a deputy-lead.

I am no Harriet fan, but I accept democratic decisions - until I can democratically help to change them.

Come on Harriet, insist on your rights. After all you have a full democratic mandate which is more than can be said for Gordon. And resign as Chair, for it does not mean that you will lose your elected post (whatever it might be).

3 comments:

Danivon said...

Not sure that it makes a lot of difference what her role in Cabinet is called.

Tom said...

No mandate at all Harry. You can't run for a discretionary position.

Harry Barnes said...

danivon and el tom,
If she doesn't even have a moral mandate, then we should scrap the Deputy Leadership position, perhaps renaming it Party Chair. I appreciate that as Harriet Harmless it doesn't matter much what she does , but for now she is Deputy Leader of the Party I belong to. I won't resign, but with a bit of luck someone will take my Party card away fom me.