Diane Abbot for me.... I think she's great....

Not Ed Balls... we need to seriously think about this, if labour do get back into power we would see "Balls has ballsd it up" in every newspaper in England. Mcdonnell will be shredded because sounds like McDonalds. Miliband is the way to go.

I like Diane Abbot,,,whassname Galloway targeted her and ousted her in a fit of pique against his former party,,,what goes around comes around ,now he's out. However I do like him when he starts up on America etc..

Not with that hair..... Mind you, I heard Ed Milliband's speech when he announced his intention to run, and was quite impressed.  Don't like David Milliband though....

Unlike my MP, Diane Abbott had the guts to vote against the Government over the closure of local Post Offices. I no longer have a Labour MP, while Abbott increased her majority - draw your own conclusions...


I honestly can't see her coming even close to winning, but I'd absolutely love it if she did...

Same here...... she is one of the few politicians , on any side, who seems to actually have principles and the courage of her convictions.

Dianne Abbott for me, she's brilliant..alas Mrs Thatcher done the damage and I fear she'll not win simply because she's a woman and the women's vote  was lost.

You are fluenced and red my mind. Ditto.

I'm not a labour supporter but if i was I'd be backing Diane Abbot.  She is one of those rare politicians who actually care about making life better for people.

and p*ssed 

Ditto again 

Are you mistaking her for Oona King? I like Diane Abbot but don't think she's articulate enough TBH. I admire all that she stands for but have seen her tied up in knots on a few occasions ..................if nothing else you need to be able to get your point across and good speaking skilss are required. I think it'll be one of the Milibands although personally I favour Ed Balls ...............dont think he'll be the popular choice though.

Ed Balls would be my choice if he stood for it. Hopes he hasn't and I'm not showing my eggnorance.

Ooop squiggle  you are right,,

Yes Meaty that is a prolemblo

Unlike all the other candidates (with exception of Diane Abbot) John McDonnell has voted consistently against some of the more authoritarian and Thatcherite-lite policies of New Labour.  He's been strongly critical of the Iraq war and Labour's paranoid anti-terrorism stance.  He will take Labour to the left without a doubt and would be a clear break from the New Labour era. 



As far as winning the next election goes, unfortunately in this media age of vacuous sound bites and forty something ex-public school boys in smart suits huddling around a consensus middle he would guarantee a Labour defeat.



Of the forty something ex-public school boys in smart suits huddling around a consensus middle, Ed Miliband would be my choice.

Mine too ........I think I prefer him to his brother but I do need to hear a bit more from both of them before I decide.

Yeah but no! After she had barked at her constituents in Hackney for ages about the local schools improving, and to have faith in the local state education provisions she went and sent her son to the fee paying City of London Boys School (@£14,000/year fees)....so she's not completely altruistic.

I can't stand Diane Abbott - preaches one thing and does quite another. Ed Balls is a patronising twonk and the Milibands are Blair clones.
I wish John Cruddas had stood, but failing that, McDonnell will do. At least he is actually Labour, not the bizarre incarnation Blair and co turned it into.

As someone who can't tell the difference between Blair, Cameron Clegg, Millibands, Burnham, Balls and co, I would prefer trad lab.

Cor that's clever I seem to be right and I haven't even posted

hahahaha aww bless squiggle 

me too.  I'd like to hear what all of them have to say and how the ones such as Balls and the Milibands intend to break with some of right wing policies of the New Labour era which they all voted for.  Apparently, Balls was recently asked what he disagreed with during Brown's time.  His answer was the 10pc tax rate abolition.  He then admitted that although he disagreed with it, he didn't say so at the time.  Those are poor leadership credentials.



I'd like to hear more from John McDonnell as he seems the ideal candidate.  However, sadly these days a leader needs to be a bit a spinning PR boy with a nice line in instantly memorable sound bites that sound good but say nothing overall.  He will need to unite the party and it will be interesting to see if he has the leadership attributes to make that a possibility. Then there's the rather more difficult matter of convincing the country that Labour have changed and will run the country better.

I would like John McDonnell to win.  But so long as it isn't Diane Abbot I'm not that bothered. There is nothing I loathe more than a really hypocritical MP, and Diane Abbot takes some beating!

He didn't go to public school, he went here

And Oona King!

Ed Balls I don't trust somehow. There's just something of a 'dodgy' air about him.
Andy Burnham, I don't think would be up to the task.

From that group can't decide between Diane Abbott and John McDonnell, there are a couple of things re both of 'em I'm not keen on, but I definitely prefer them to any of the others.I was hoping for Cruddas

Fair enough, should have researched that one.  I think the Milibands come over as being in that smug class of career politician who it's natural to assume went to public school and I'd be surprised if most voters don't think the same.  Being perceived as something is often as bad as being something. 



Four months is a good long time for them to make their claims and perhaps in the cases of the Milibands, shed some of that career politician Clegg-Cameron-Blair PR boy image that I think will increasingly annoy voters in months to come.

I had assumed that they were ex public school and only realised otherwise when I was reading stuff up about them when they threw their hats in the ring

Is that the best you could come up with? It's worse when the person doing the perceiving has got it completely wrong...I don't actually think the public school educated or not issue should make a blind bit of difference to how capable someone can be in public office. I've been in both state and private education when I was growing up...I didn't see anything essentially different in the friends I made along the way.

I have to report that IMHYCO that's our lot. I can't see any other sort of candidate ever. Neither party will ever select anyone who deviates from this depressing norm.

Well if they all do seem a certain way, it could be that the language, trappings and business of politics attracts certain types. In the same way that some veer towards medicine, law, accountancy etc.. Doesn't follow that they are all clones when you view them as individuals.

 Moin! Comrade Suzy. May I refer (again) to the story of my constituency party. We selected a horny handed son of toil (a female senior teacher in a local comp) only for her to be deselected from on high and replaced with a robotic flipchart type merchant. That was as  long ago as the nineties.

The Uni's they attended may have some bearing
Blair, Cameron, Milliband brothers, Balls : Oxford 
Clegg, Abbott, Burnham  : Cambridge
Brown: Edinburgh
McDonnell: Brunel

I'm not a Labour voter, but it strikes me that the Party hasn't got a lot to choose from.

Diane Abbott is as big a hypocrite as many others and she does tend to speak out without properly researching her subject.

Ed Balls...I know and he always has been an arrogant twonk

The Millibands...would prefer to see Ed there rather than Mr Bean....because Ed seems to be able to speak better than his brother

No idea who the other two are


So on balance, for me it would have to be Ed Milliband

As someone who is interested and will probably have two votes through different channels I can reveal that Ed Balls shot himself in the foot with his twatty knee-jerk treatment of that Shoesmith woman. People who pander to the thicko press and their scratter readers get no vote here.

Have you decided who you're voting for GJ?

Voted for Di Abbott but hope that she doesn't, I'd miss her on't late night telly