Peter today confirmed what had long been rumoured; that he would put himself forward for the position of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party when a vacancy arises (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labourleadership/story/0,,1870491,00.html)

There is only one intellectual in Labour's cabinet today.

The party cannot stand divided against itself. Only our opponents gain from the dismaying spectacle of a Labour Party dominated by briefing, counter-briefing and darkly looking in on itself.

  No not spin and such works but proportional representation...

The past few weeks have contained a number of dispiriting events and reports for Labour members, but for me two in particular stand out. Firstly, party membership has now officially fallen below the psychologically crucial mark of 200,000. Secondly, according to a recent Mori poll nearly a quarter of Labour voters want their party to lose the next election to `rethink what they stand for and what their vision is for the... country'.

The idea of a 'coronation' for Gordon Brown as Labour leader was surely always a rather naive one. Such thoughts neglected to recognise the significant minority in the PLP who saw Brown as as much of a representative of New Labour as Tony Blair, and whom were quite prepared to put forward an alternative view of Labour values.