In a Spin: Dizzy Grasping at Straw Poll Man

Dizzy has run a story suggesting that Pollster Philip Gould was criticizing Gordon Brown when he remarked in today's Indy that (a) John Smith would have been a great PM but would have left the work of party renewal undone and (b) that work is still undone.

I'm not sure I can follow Dizzy's spin here. Surely after 13 years of Blair Gould can only be saying that Blair hasn't renewed and modernised the party enough or in the right way. I tend to agree.

Blair has in fact presided over the opposite. Lost half the membership. Alienated some of the main constituencies in Labour support. Lost council seats, councils and constituencies.

Whereas the signs with Brown are quite promising as far as they go so far, just a few days in - widening participation from MPs as a whole in policy formulation for example.

Feared attacks on the part of affiliates and CLP delegates, if conference were turned into even more of a set piece rally, may or may not get through, but even on that the question is what is proposed instead. Clearly giving the PLP more power without empowering the broad membership will be deeply unpopular.

Blair's Partnership in Power has been a bit of a ramp, manipulated by fixers. Gould's remarks seem to reflect that Blair failure to get this right. Rather than being a dig at Brown who was not in the chair during some years of severe atrophy. And he now has the chance to show he can learn and grow.