UK Election non-frenzy

Well who would know more about democracy and the overthrowing thereof than a government that 24% of the electorate voted for?

George Osbornes brother is london graffiti pioneer flo 2

I am writing a strategy paper for Labour.

It wasn't solicited and won't be welcome or, obviously, even read.

But I need to get my head around What Just Happened, what the party should do, and why I would remain a member.

I will let you know when I have finished.

Right now, this party seems fucked to me. The Lib Dems could redesign themselves as the Liberal Party (the old SDP faction are too old and compromised to complain now); that could work for them. That's a route out.

Labour have much more to do. They've wasted five years of debate and creative destruction, and it's not happening yet. It needs to happen now. We don't need to choose a new leader, we need to design a programme to meet the demands and tackle the problems the country faces. It has to be positive and ambitious, and not be about political positioning and party mythologies. I think that a renewal of manufacturing and an industrial strategy could be key, as Mandelson (to be fair) was saying in 2008/9, but I'm not sure yet.

Actually, I probably won't let you know when I've finished. I'll probably keep it to myself and use it as a primer for the awful branch meetings we are likely to have in the next two years.

Find it difficult to know where Labour can go from here. Top job must be a poisoned chalice if ever there was one - I thought Miliband was actually pretty astute in his wangling. Is the English public that biddable? What is going on there?

I'd be interested to read that Craner, should you feel like sharing. I feel utterly baffled as to what Labour should do also.

Wrt to problems this country faces, I'm thinking that as climate change is likely to be very significant, I may as well save myself the stress of worrying about the Labour Party and worry about the Greens. Especially with the Blairities sleazing around everywhere.

One thing I thought Labour should do was to hire Camilla Cavendish as a policy advisor for Health, not just to advise but also to challenge the terrible ideas and complacency Labour have about the NHS at the moment.

(They forget history: when Bevan as chief architect set up the NHS, he expected demand to drop as the initial demand from the unhealthy, non-insured and poor would decline significantly as they became healthier; clearly, this did not happen (to say the least), while the population exploded every year, creating more and more demand on the service, always impossible to adequately fund or manage. This expense was not sustainable, which is why Bevan and Gaitskell had that almost party-destroying feud over charges, which has retarded debate about the design and viability of the NHS ever since. See also ructions about private beds in public hospitals which partly damaged Barbara Castle: these arguments had been going on for a long time within the Labour party before Blair, but are now extinct when most needed.)

It seems that Cameron had an even better idea: he's contracted her to head the No. 10 Policy Unit.

By the way, the Cavendish thing was more a small fantasy than a strategic idea, as such. But I think Labour do need to harvest talent in this way. Creative destruction. Everything is up in the air, now.