Hand on heart, I do not want to be Labour leader | Jon Cruddas | Comment is free | The Guardian .

I like Jon Cruddas and have got to know him a bit over the last couple of years.

I like what he says here. And I admire him for saying it. His recipe is right. I think he’ also right to say he’s not the man to lead the party. But it has to listen to him.

His conclusion is spot on:

Labour has a chance to be bold. And at our boldest, we are Britain’s best hope for a freer more just country. The next few months will decide whether the party is ready to grasp that chance.

I hope they do.

UK: The Strange Death of the Rainbow Coalition | Social Europe Journal.

My friend and Compass writing colleague George Irwin has written:

To be sure, Britain today does not lack the issues to animate a more progressive politics — climate change, fighting poverty, minority rights, a fairer income distribution, to name but a few. But the centre-left is no longer to be found in a single party, and in some cases it is more engaged in grass-roots movements.

A new politics is needed, a politics of coalition between the different organisation and campaigns across the spectrum of centre-left parties. An essential ingredient of such politics is a change in the voting system, a new constitutional settlement which breaks with the smug insularity of those who argue for the unique virtue of Britain’s creaking voting arrangements. Theirs is the language of Thatcher and Sons, a language which must finally be abandoned if progressive politics is to thrive again in Britain.

I agree.

As I also agree with Polly Toynbee today who says that Labour need not rush a leadership election. Issues need to be decided first.

Congratulations, Mr Cameron. Now learn the lessons of a dismal campaign | Tim Montgomerie | Comment is free | The Guardian .

Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome has written a 7,000 word dossier condemning Cameron’s management of the election campaign. As he has written in the Guardian:

Ahead of last week’s election, everything was set up for the Conservative party. The British economy was weak. Gordon Brown’s reputation was in tatters. The Labour party was divided. In contrast, Cameron was the most popular Tory leader for a generation in mid-term polls. The party was twice as well-funded as Labour and was able to afford the most professional marginal-seats operation ever seen in UK politics.

And yet, the Tories fell short.

That’s a massive understatement.

With all the money any party leader could dream of thanks to Ashcroft he failed. And now he’s in charge of our economy.

With Brown massively unpopular he couldn’t win the argument for his convictions – because as Simon Jenkins in the Guardian argues – he travels ideology-lite. He wnated – as Vince Cable rather nicely put it weeks ago – to get his friends noses in the trough. That was it.

And who is condemned most of all – George Osborne, as I predicted last Thursday. As Montgomerie says:

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, never developed a consistent economic message

And this is the man who is now meant to close the deficit, reassure markets and avert another recession – all at the same time. Not a hope.

The message is clear – even the Tories think the team now running the country are second rate. And that’s on day #1.

Wait until May 2015 and see what they think then.

ConDem will be phrase the country will echo then.

The BBC note that the Labour Party has effectively conceded that it’s out of office.

As I suggested at the weekend – this is the right option for Labour right now.

It has three things to do.

The first is to select an electable new leader with a deputy who between them can command cross party support. The Left must not be left out this time.

Second, it has to sit back for at least two years before pulling a Tory – Lib Dem edifice down. The pain has to be real in the country before an election is called – and the Tories will deliver just that, plus recession and rising unemployment.

Third, they have to become much, much more radical. They will be the sole opposition at the next election (Greens apart in the UK and nationalists elsewhere). The Lib Dems are heading to cease to be. In that case the reason for embracing neoliberalism and all the disasters that are following in its wake have ceased to exist.

But electoral reform has to remain on the agenda. We cannot afford the Tories ever having the chance to secure a majority in its won right – the prospect for democracy in the UK is just too horrible to contemplate.

The bedrock for a serious bounce exists.

And the poisoned chalice is David Cameron’s, topped up by Nick Clegg and his Orange Book friends.

The next two years will be horrid – but that was always going to be the case. But at least there is now a prospect of a freshly elected Labour government, soon.