Go on then, who do you reckon will win? The Labour Leadership contest, that is...

Tories when it comes to slashing the benefits bill, Rachel Reeves, the new shadow work and pensions secretary, has insisted in her first interview since winning promotion in Ed Miliband's frontbench reshuffle.

The 34-year-old Reeves, who is seen by many as a possible future party leader, said that under Labour the long-term unemployed would not be able to "linger on benefits" for long periods but would have to take up a guaranteed job offer or lose their state support.

Adopting a firm party line on welfare, the former Bank of England economist stressed that a key part of her task would be to explode the "myth" that Labour is soft on benefit costs, and to prove instead that it will be both tough and fair.

Labour left looking strong.

Why vote for these cocks when you could vote Tory?

is there going to be a token left candidate this time? John McDonnell, Diane Abbott again?

Burnham said: “The country has voted now for a European referendum and under my leadership the Labour party will not be a grudging presence on that stage. We will now embrace it. It should be brought forward to 2016.

The country has also voted for £12bn of further welfare cuts so presumably by Burnham's logic his Labour Party isn't going to quibble with that either?

Thing is at this stage of the game there's basically zero risk in saying you favour a referendum given that Cameron is virtually certain to be bounced into holding one in this Parliament whether he likes it or not. Especially given Osborne's initial attempts to renegotiate Britain's membership last week were met with "will you just fuck off? We're trying to deal with Greece here".

Labour manifesto was that they would be at least as hard as the Tories on welfare cuts, I remember Rachel Reeves saying it on television.

The thing to remember is that the Labour Party of 96 onwards does not want to be an alternative to the Torder, they want to be competition for them. It's an important distinction.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Cooper celebrates in traditional style - is there anyone left on the left at all?

Labour must reset relationship with business, Yvette Cooper to say

has this always always been a thing? I notice it more and more, around the election especially - reporting some politicial is to say a thing rather than has said a thing.

It's when virtually the entire text is given to the press in advance, happens for most of Osborne's statements now.

and still the blair crew shit on about the lack of 'modernisers' on the ballot.

is there a particular benefit to fully briefing the press before a statement is actually made beyond appearing even more like a transparent operator?

It means the media don't always have to be there, getting in the way with their booms and cameras and teams of reporters and so on.

If the media aren't there, why does the politician need to be there?

that's some schroedinger's shit right there

I mean, fuck closing down a nursery school for one day so you can give some shitty speech about british values, just send out a press release.

.. when you can just shut down a nursery school full stop right?

http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/221337/slide_221337_883255_original.jpg

Both of them are aware who's doing who a favour there.

If the media aren't there, why does the politician need to be there?

can't they just use tumblr?

bc the westminster bubble sustains itself via pantomime

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/voters-dont-actually-care-about-labours-attitude-to-aspiration-poll-finds-10266729.html

Lol.

40% polled basically adhering to received 'wisdom' unchanged from 40 years ago (linking Labour with economic disarray). Suggesting absolutely nothing has been learned in that time.

Meanwhile net migration approaches a ten year high - probably to be blamed on the coalition preventing a real 'crackdown' now feasible.

It makes minimal difference anyway, the guff about aspiration isn't really aimed at voters, it's about trying to placate the RW press (and in doing so trying to calm the noise around those first three objections).

Umunna has officially endorsed Kendall.

Andy Burnham's 2010 campaign logo vs Andy Burnham's 2015 campaign logo

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad53/razzlewis/Andy4Leader/afl.png https://36.media.tumblr.com/e67cc519634c47be61f3c9a5b6f7d707/tumblr_noc6e5cFiZ1uu6dvho1_500.jpg

2015 logo trying to be a little bit too clever for its own good imo, bring back the triangles

Second one emphasising how body odour is actually the heart of Labour

first one looking a bit Constructivist for today's go-ahead Labour Zero

if we're equating labour with manual toil then body odour kind of IS the heart of Labour tbf

it's weird, the images on his campaign's twitter feed seem to be going out of their way to avoid any hint of having been carefully or thoughtfully designed:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFJ8WvfXIAAttTl.jpg:large

it's perfect, all the emphasis on contemporaneity and chummy ordinariness, none of them unappealing policies or ideas

yeah, it seems intentionally made to look like an amateurish facebook macro, but it's an odd contrast with the flashy look of his last campaign

2015 will be all about reconnecting with the people i guess

i was listening to this Liz Kendall profile on R4 last week and there was this "She used to love Public Enemy when she was a student and does like rap music" element which seemed very forced and made her seem even more of a robotic Blairite rather than whatever the desired effect was meant to be.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/91/Splazsh_cover.jpg/220px-Splazsh_cover.jpg

http://www.tshirtpod.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Hex-Illuminati.jpg

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0263/1575/products/sbr050-moon-duo-mazes_c455b43d-f2bc-4a5a-9096-cf2b2dd02c48_1024x1024.jpeg?v=1398720065

Andy Needs your support

that capital N is pissing me off

i was listening to this Liz Kendall profile on R4 last week and there was this "She used to love Public Enemy when she was a student and does like rap music" element which seemed very forced and made her seem even more of a robotic Blairite rather than whatever the desired effect was meant to be.

The Mirror had her admitting to liking hip hop :/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32927139

Is the only reason the unions are backing Burham because everyone else is somehow, mysteriously, worse or is there more to it than that?

is male, still affects non-RP accent

For better or worse the last leadership contest at least felt like a contest between different approaches and beliefs. In terms of policy and approach the difference between this lot is extremely minimal.

I don't really see how anyone could have come through the last seven or so years and not concluded that the state and business are interdependent but it would be refreshing for at least one candidate to admit that perhaps "business" and "wealth creators" aren't actually monoliths that should be treated as all brilliant or all evil depending on whether or not your name is Ed Miliband. The very question of whether or not you're "pro-business" or not is reductive to the point of being moronic.

yeah even "stakeholders" was better than what we have now

still think that developing the idea of businesses as part of a democratic system and therefore being subject to a level of democratic control wd be a less threatening way of selling the public on the notion that capital shdn't perhaps be allowed to just do whatever the fuck it wants

but, y'know, why bother, clearly what Labour needs to do is allow wealth creators to run the country as they see fit and play up to anti-chav and anti-immigrant prejudice as much as possible

You can achieve anything, as long as you're white.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/29/liz-kendall-will-back-white-working-class-young

She praised one primary school for having an “aspirations week”, saying such programmes were needed to “teach girls and boys, particularly from white working class communities, about the chances in life they may not even know exist – like being an engineer, a chemist and even leader of the Labour party”.

Kendall also mentioned the need to help white working-class communities, during a journalists’ gathering in Westminster last week, when she said Labour would still “be doing the best for kids, particularly in white-working class communities” in 2020.

"Aspiration is not the preserve of those who shop at John Lewis. Aspiration is universal; it is felt by Asda and Aldi shoppers too."

what does this mean

shops as signifiers of class smdh

Labour party is in a mess trying to appeal to middle class Tories and racist Kippers and anti-austerity Scots all at the same time.

depressing that a putative labour leader would rather trot out nonsense non-signifiers than actually say the word "class"

aspiration means never having to say you're working class

what's horrible/stupid about the aspiration mantra is the way it ignores inequality, ignores corporate responsibility and ignores environmental fragility in the name of a soulless acquisitiveness, an ever expanding frontier of prosperity built on nothing and oblivious to the damage it leaves in its wake