A Manifestation of the Totally Boring - the Labour Leadership Election

Has there ever been an election more boring that the current contest to become Labour leader? If there has, then I've not come across it. Even Diane Abbott - a cretin but at least a cretin with opinions - has shown herself to be a damp squib in this contest. Miliband Major must be very pleased that he helped her into the contest; in doing so, he has made sure that the left is technically being represented without actually having a left-wing voice in the campaign. Basically, this leadership contest has become about five boring people in a room being boring. In silence.

Part of the reason for this is down to the candidates running. They are all lacking in charisma. In fact, for this lot, charisma is something that happens to other people. The fact that David Miliband - a man who makes IDS look like an eloquent, fiery demagogue - is leading this contest perfectly sums up the dearth of talent involved in it.

But there is a further problem; barring the surprisingly silent Abbott, the other four are so far immersed in the recent history of the Labour party that they are practically drowned by it. This extract from an article on The New Statesman perfectly sums it up:

Ed Miliband has ditched Labour's manifesto commitment to a 2:1 ratio of spending cuts to tax rises, and has hinted he would prefer a 50:50 split. I pointed this out to a former cabinet minister, now backing the elder Miliband, who rolled his eyes and said: "You mean the manifesto that Ed himself wrote?"

Which rather nails it for me. The Labour leadership candidates can all claim to be the bold new pioneers trying to drag Labour away from the now utterly discredited Nu Labour project, but barring Abbott they helped the creators of Nu Labour and did their level best to keep it afloat for years. And Abbott isn't about a bold new future for her party; she would drag it back to the days of Michael Foot. When it was even less popular than it is right now.

Whoever wins this leadership election almost doesn't matter; they will end up being the compromise leader of a compromised party. They cannot take the party forward into the future because they cannot escape the past. For better or for worse, the political zeitgeist belongs to Cameron and Clegg - the Scaramanga and Nick Nack of modern politics. The result of this leadership election will not change that.