Hmmm

[andrewducker]

If we get a LD/Con alliance then we clearly get Cameron as PM.

However, for a LD/Lab/SNP/PC alliance who do we get? We can't get Brown - so do we get another Labour MP? Will we get Clegg? I can see there being an awful lot of debate over what to do there. And I can't see Labour being happy to give the LDs a big boost by handing them that much extra publicity. Unless they want to make all of the austerity measures look like the LDs fault. In any case, it's going to be a gamble over whether the PM ends up looking very, very bad or very, very good.

Comments

[drplokta]

It will be Brown, since he's still the Labour leader, and then his replacement once elected (by the Labour party, not by the electorate at large).

[nojay.livejournal.com]

A Rainbow Alliance does indeed mean that Gordon Brown stays as PM until the Labour Party conference in September. At that point Gordon Brown resigns and Labour selects a new leader who will then be PM. That presumes the Alliance can hang together until September with the Conservatives doing everything they can to break a few MPs loose and force a vote of no-confidence.

The key date is the Queen's Speech on May 25. The Rainbow Alliance will have to be up and running at that point with a proposed legislative program that all the parties and individuals involved can sign on to. The vote for the Speech is a confidence vote -- if they lose it then Parliament is dissolved and it's time for the circus music to start up again. Operationally speaking it's a lot easier for a Lib/Con alliance to put together a coherent program (if somewhat abbreviated) by May 25 and that produces a larger working majority allowing a few bolshie types on either side to go renegade on a given matter (Trident, say, or the expected proportional voting legislation) without bringing the whole edifice down around their ears.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

As we're in office I believe the National Executive Committee will appoint an interim leader until one can be elected.

It should be interesting because the natural choice would be the deputy leader. However, I feel I do not overstate the case when I opine that Harriet has a snowball's chance in hell. There is a resistance to her in the Labour Party and the electorate which I think is mostly misogeny.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

Which is a shame, because given the choice of Harman vs Balls or Harman vs any variety of Milliband, it's Harriet all the way for me!

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

On Newsnight last night she specifically said she wasn't going to run for leader, which surprised me.