Monday 6 September 2010

The real fight will start after we have elected a new Labour Leader

My ballot papers arrived though the letter box last week but I still haven't filled them in yet.

Like many Labour members, I am still undecided, and as we are told on many occasions, our second preference vote is also very important. Plus we have votes for the NEC and policy forum. So the next few days I have to make my mind up and send the papers in.

But for me I wish it was already over, I had hoped for more from the leadership campaign, I wanted it to inspire more Young members and also for it to be used as a tool to get out and meet the public. Some people have been inspired and the party has seen a rise in it's membership as many have joined to be able to vote in the election. We have had hustings, debates and the candidates have bombarded us with leaflets, e mails, texts and phone calls but I believe we would have gained more in the long run if each candidate had gone out and knocked on doors with members rather than speed from one constituency to another, often visiting over 5 a day, just to meet members rather than the general public

Then to make our job even harder we have Tony Blair and Mandelson with their books! Now I do believe we should be proud of what Tony and Gordon achieved and the two of them along with Campbell and Mandleson have helped make a party that is now far more electable than it was in the 80's, but Blair and Brown have had their time and I now want a new leader now so he can form his strong team and start taking the attack to the Tories and Lib Dems and then activists can get out talking to the public rather than trying to encourage other Labour members to vote for their preferred candidate.

So who am I going to vote for?

Well I believe all of them less Abbott would make better Prime Ministers than Cameron (or Clegg) but I am thinking I should vote for the one who is most electable, the one who non Labour members would most vote for. You may say where are your principles? Why don't I choose the candidate whose policies are the closest to mine. But I do believe that we must choose the man who will ensure that we only have 4 more years of this Tory gang. They have already started to destroy the Education system and in 10 years, the NHS, the Armed Forces, all would be unrecognisable and even worse probably destroyed beyond repair.

So my vote will go to David Miliband, but my second preference? Still have not got a clue, so keep sending those texts and phoning me up because David may have my first choice but the rest of my votes are still up for grabs (Ms Abbott save your money)

So what I am looking forward to is October when we will have a new, young, strong leader with a strong shadow cabinet, then the real fightback and the real work will start.

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