Cruddas on GMTV Sunday
This declared JC supporter hopes Tom Watson’s sources are good:
I understand that Jon Cruddas will be voicing grave doubts about the renewal of the Trident programme on the GMTV Sunday programme this weekend. He’ll say that his deputy leadership campaign will be used to engage the party on the issue. He’ll also say that he thought that we were mislead over the Iraq war and that if he had the chance again he would have voted ‘no’.
Update: The Daily has some extracts from the interview.
Have see your pic on http://www.joncruddas.org.uk Very nice!
The worrying thing is that one would have had to be pretty stupid not to have realised before the war started that we were being misled. If one million people who marched through London could see through the deception, why couldn’t Members of Parliament?
Still, I agree with you that Cruddas’s statements are encouraging.
check out bbc news - they have a story about Cruddas on Trident.
He was utterly formidable when speaking to the young fabians recently - I’m even more excited about the prospect of him becoming deputy than I was prior to the event!!
I’m not sure he is going to get on the ballot paper.
Adele - if you want him to be on the ballot, you should write to your MP and ask them to make sure he is. MPs aren’t in an bubble. Well, erm, they shouldn’t be!
I think that counts as political opportunism. Cruddas has realised that any anti-War MP is going to get a great number of votes. It’s too late to vote no, now.
Perhaps he will also explain what he has done to improve his political analysis, his morality and his gullibility in a way that would make him suitable for high office.
I’m afraid that statement has guaranteed that I won’t vote for him.
His statement on trident strikes as opportunism as well. As of this last week, I’m edging towards Johnson.
Opportunism? Perhaps. However, to many members of the Labour Party it seems wholly sensible to call for a proper debate on this crucially important issue. His calmly stated arguments do not seem designed to be especially populist with anyone.
As for the whole voting for the war thing…As someone who themselves was convinced that there was a pressing left-wing case for overthrowing Saddam based on anti-totalitarianism and human rights I can sympathise with where Cruddas is coming from. I can not see that my previous views on Iraq were naive and overly optimistic on the competence of the US government and military.
Therefore I don’t think Cruddas is being crudely opportunistic. He had already rebelled against the government on a number of occassions, so there’s no reason to think he is a “Blairite lapdog” who is now jumping ship.
Whatever people think about trident, there is a need for debate on this. Quite frankly I don’t see why that debate should be confided to the Cabinet. I enjoyed the Jon Cruddas interview. A lot of what he says is very reasoned and I always feel that I learn something when I hear him. But what was perhas perhaps most interesting about the GMTV programme this morning was Roy Hattersley’s opposition to trident renewal! Those of us active in the 1980s will be appreciate the significance of this. It certainly proves that caution on trident renewal is not confined to the usual suspects. Jon is right to raise this.
Ooops! Where I said “I can not see” I meant to say “I can see”. I wholeheartedly accept that Iraq has been a disaster.
Cruddas is DEFINITELY going to be on the ballot paper. His team would not be making the effort it is if he wasn’t. Think about it.
You could say the same for McDonnell who is unlikely to get on the ballot paper. I just don’t see where his support will come from.
13. I think Jon’s support will actually span a fair bit of the political spectrum - perhaps more than any other candidate. From the old right through to Brownites, Compass MPs and Campaign Groupers. The key messages I’m getting are that Jon wants to broaden the discussions at the top of the party to reflect the interests and feelings of the members and be more deliberative on the process of forming policy and setting our new direction post-Blair.
All of this will appeal to a lot of mainstream backbench MPs. Of course the Blairites and existing ‘payroll vote’ will back either Johnson or Benn, but there are a lot of lower-profile MP’s whose vote counts as much as others too. I was with one MP on Friday who commented that he’s never felt like he ‘counted’ since he was not in any faction and was not interested in being a minister. He said he was very likely to back Jon.
Will he get onto the ballot - definately. He’s not going to get the most nominations from MPs (I think Johnson will) but that after all, it’s only one third of the college.
Antonia,
Good to see you backing Cruddas. He’s really galvanising party members in East London and Essex with his serious anti-BNP work and demands for decent social housing. Without him creating a real debate about the future of the party, it would just be a bunch of Cabinet Ministers standing against each other.
There is no point backing an anti-war candidate for deputy if you don’t back one for Leader - the post, as it stands,is pretty meaningless . You’re all getting v carried away with this and missing the point - I think Cruddas is OK and will probably vote for him but it’s no bloody use if we have a pro-Trident. New labour Leader,PM and Cabinet. If you’re voting for Cruddas, you have to vote for John McDonnell - it’s illogical not to. The centre-left and left will just have to work together for a change….. At my current head count, McDonnell’s got about 35 nominations in the bag - he needs 9 more .Lobby your MP now……get your friends to re-join Labour and vote for the 2 Johns!
If Meacher stands it’s all over for McDonnell.
I don’t know, do you think many people will actually vote for Meacher? He’s alienated pretty much all sections of the party over the years.
I would prefer Meacher to McDonnell but would vote for either.
No, I meant that there’s no way McDonnell will get the 44 names to even get on the ballot paper. People need to remember that that’s the stage we’re at at the moment. We (the wider membership) won’t be voting for anyone if 44 MPs haven’t first nominated them. Mechaer seriously threatens McDonnell’s nomination figures.
In 1992, people were allowed to nominate two candidates for deputy leader (see Andy McSmith’s biography of John Smith), in a kind of preferential system; this enabled there to be a contest. What’s the likelihood of that happening this time?