Stand by your man

Dinner tonight with eight or nine other MPs, including a couple of senior Ministers. The get-together had been planned a while ago, to give us a chance to catch up with each other before Conference, but of course we ended up talking about events of the past few days. Everyone 100% supportive of Gordon and between us we'd spoken to a lot of colleagues and party members who absolutely feel the same. Earlier on in the day I'd had a call from Newsnight, wanting to know whether I was going to request nomination papers; I did my usual 'no comment' on the basis that I don't co-operate with these stories, but then immediately regretted it. So to go on the record now - no, I'm not. I don't know anyone else who is. I still believe - no, I know - that Gordon is a man of immense ability and integrity, and that during these turbulent economic times we need someone of his experience at the helm. (And just as a footnote - apparently today's Cabinet meeting bore absolutely no resemblance to media reports either).

So what about it? (2)

As you may have guessed from the last post, I am of course already regretting my rash pledge to commit to the blogosphere my thoughts on 'what Gordon should do', which could broadly be summarised as 'he should bash a few heads together and then get on with the job'. I can see me being misquoted (or quoted out of context) already. So I'm going to leave it at that.

So what about it?

I'm quite impressed with myself today - have just managed to dismantle the u-bend under the sink, remove the blockage - (decaff) coffee grounds and burnt lentils: cliché, moi? - and put it all back together again without even making that much of a mess. Which seems to me a far more useful way to spend the afternoon than that chosen by some of my parliamentary colleagues.

As I've said before on this blog, those of us - the overwhelming majority of Labour MPs - who still very much support Gordon's leadership are in a difficult position. By joining in the 'debate', if you can call it that, you simply add fuel to the fire and give the commentariat something to keep the story running that little bit longer. Which then gives the public the impression that all we're doing is squabbling amongst ourselves when we should be sorting out the problems facing the country. But if you say nothing, then you cede the floor to a few disgruntled Blairites, (who, ironically, were the very people who were so big on Millbank-style party discipline a decade or so ago).

So what I'm going to do later - when I've put the washing on, taken the rubbish out, vacuumed the stairs - is to try to suggest what I think Gordon should do next. In the meantime, here's the view of one Labour Party activist:

From LabourHome.
Re: Siobhain McDonagh breaks ranks! (#20)
by RedRooster on Fri Sep 12, 2008 at 11:31:47 PM GMT
Key thing for me was the she said that in Westminster they talk about this ALL THE TIME.
This really, really annoyed me in her interview. I've done a hell of a lot of door-knocking and face-to-face meeting with voters since May. Of all the people I've canvassed, do you know how many people raised the issue of who the Prime Minister was?
Two.
Lots of concerns about other things- energy bills, parking (and parking, and parking, and parking), too many flats, pensioner poverty, crime and ASB... you know. Things that exist in the real world.
If this woman believes that EVERYONE is obsessing about who the PM is, then she has seriously lost sight of what really matters in this world. Most people, if it really came down to it, don't give a monkeys about who the PM is- all they want to know is how it affects their bottom line- themselves, their family, and their community.
McDonagh didn't name ONE policy that she had a problem with. Not ONE THING she would have done differently. All she complained about was that her constituents kept on asking her 'what's labour doing'... and she thought it was someone else's job to tell them!
Here's my advice to Siobhain McDonagh. Get out of the Westminster village. Get some perspective. Start working on tangible policy issues that actually mean something to the 99.999% of the population who don't have their heads stuck up the collective Westminster arse.
And shut up until you do.