Lords: Feisty by-Election of Unelected Undecided

Hopi Sen tells of a House of Lords (Hereditory for the use of) By-Election. There have been quite a few of those over the years since Hereditories were limited to 92 seats in the Upper House. As aged Noble Lords and Ladies among the 92 die these unelected scions duke it out for re-elevation.

This time the deceased was a cross bencher. Officially there are 29 of those among the excluded hereditories. But there were 33 candidates. And just 26 voted, two thirds of them getting nul poins as they aren't so coarse as to vote for themselves. The Earl of Stair (who apparently has a spare title to his name) triumphed. Perhaps the spare titles account for the discrepancies?

Or did four (or more) officially aligned peers mischieviously chance their arm as putative future cross benchers?

My pal, Radio Lloydy co-conspirator, and near neighbour Baron Monkswell (above) is still on hearse watch for the next couple of Labour hereditories to pop their clogs, or kick the bouquet. Although he sometimes says different. He placed 93rd and out by a whisker in the original blood bath.

Iain Dale: Twaddle on Smoking Reduction Moves

Iain Dale wants to ban smoking outright and objects to an approach of sensible step changes, designed to reduce "recruitment" to the habit.

What exactly is Iain's objection? He doesn't actually tell us. But insofar as there is any logic ... we need to test it. So here is a small redraft on the second half of his post, inspired by Iain's friend Nads:

The real agenda of the people behind these authoritarian proposals is to ban abortion outright. At least that would be an intellectually honest position. As it is, the constant chipping away of the rights of women is typical of the authoritarian drift among so-called (ex-)health professionals.

Either ban it outright or leave people to make their own decisions.

UPDATE: Sunday, 15:22: Of course Iain Dale isn't calling for a ban anymore than the government is. When he apologises to the government for his LIES, LOL will apologise for the wind up.

Save The Labour Party: Peter Gets Too Much Sun

Save The Labour Party ("as an ethical, democratically-run, solvent, mass membership organisation") head honcho Peter Kenyon has gone all satirical on us, proposing that Party members fork out an average of £135 a head to bail the party out.

In Labour Home comments R Wendland (who has previous) suggests a squeeze on the parliamentarians who would each be asked for £20,000 to pay off one third of the debt.

Let's see where we can take this one. This thought should I think be combined with Ruth Lea's suggestion on last night's Question Time - ignorantly pooh-poohed, by Mr Pickles I think - viz. that MPs' second homes should revert to the state when they die, retire or lose.

No, Eric, not the same as halls of residence. Properties largely paid for by the taxpayer simply belonging to the tax payer. Clearly the current generation of Labour MPs will grasp the opportunity to show they are not grasping individuals by passing their second home deeds over to the Party in its hour of need.

Why on earth should representatives of any party end up with two or more homes, or the cashed-in capital gains thereon, which have largely been funded by the people? House them, yes. Give them a six-figure property windfall, no.

Mark McDonald: For a Treasurer Who Counts

Mark McDonald, the man who would be Party treasurer, (right) has a website and would like Labour people to join up.

Don't know about you, but for all Jack Dromey's mythos and his many good points he simply did not keep his eye on the ball or his ear to the ground when it came to minding the money. It is good to see a positive campaign for a competent, missionary grassroots candidate.

Nad Dorries: Next Trick, Return of Coal Industry

Looks like Nadine Dorries MP has a new project! Not exactly permalinked here. But here it is:

When we closed down our mines, forever, Germany kept theirs ticking over, so that if necessary they could be 're-booted' in the future. Which they have been.
Makes sense as technology has provided us with the ability to extract all the harmful chemicals from coal to provide a clean burn.
France went nuclear. Three quarters of France’s energy is met by nuclear power.
So, just thinking along the lines of economic competitiveness, does being almost totally dependent on fuel imports put us at a disadvantage? Do you think that just maybe someone in this place may suggest it's time to end the culture of short termism?
I wrote a blog a while ago about food security. The same principle applies to fuel surely?

That's quite a project. Putting back what her heroine Maggie Thatcher destroyed. Of course at this point in her life Nads had long since abandoned hubby one and was oblivious, off big game hunting for hubby number two in darkest Africa.

Back in Liverpool the people knew what they had to do. Perhaps it is through missing this, and Halewood disputes, and all the Thatcher damage, and the rich new hubby and all, that Nads became a Tory in the first place?

So, Nadine must have got over her recent disappointment? Sadly no. The Clean Coal/Nuclear post ends with:

A lady has written in one of the cards “Sometime in the future, our great grandchildren will look back on what we did, in the same way we look back on the appalling practice of slavery, and try to make sense of what appeared on the outside to be a progressive and civilised society, but which was Tories all the while butchering our Coal Industry”.

Well, something a bit like that anyway. Slightly adapted to keep Nads on topic.

'Shop of Horrors: Editors' Wandering Hand Trouble

Max Hastings has wandering hand trouble reproduced with glee by Da Fink.

Unlocking Democracy: David Chaytor MP et al

This is a Greater Manchester Fabian Society Event.

With Peter Davidson (Unlock Democracy in Greater Manchester)
And David Chaytor MP (Bury North)

Talking on ‘Unlocking Democracy – how far too much power is locked up in the hands of far too few people and what we can do’ Opportunity for questions.

Date: Thursday 5th June 2008
Time: 7.45pm to 9pm
Venue: The Main Hall, The Methodist Central Hall, Oldham Street, Manchester M1 1JT
Cost: Free (we will ask for a small donation on the evening to cover costs of the room hire).

"Unlock Democracy" is the 20th birthday rebranding for Charter 88 in combination with the New Politics Network. David Chaytor MP was someone able to articulate a socialist rationale for Student Fees, respectable whether we agreed or not, but IMO has rolled over too readily on subsequent Education Bilge.

Please RSVP by emailing Graham - the Original Announcement

Mr GuF: Hides His Bankruptcy Lite Under a Bushmills

How is the criminal toper Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes aka Mr GuF coping with his driving ban and house arrest? Well, he's been appearing in comments on more and different blogs than usual. Though not alas at LOL for quite some time.

He has also become almost unbearably humble. For example, although he is a great personal expert on bankruptcy he has not blown that trumpet at this rather inexpert gloat of a post.

Perhaps now he's cut down from his, ahem, "four"* bottles of Claret a week he'll become considerably more civilised? We'll see.

* Fourteen is considered more likely by those that know GuF, though Fourty also has some takers.

Libdemologists: Select Kentish Social Franchiser

Three Line Whip are I think rather shocked at the ruthlessness of the Libdemologists, though at least they have not yet lost their former candidate Susan Cooper (left), who appears under the usurper from Kentthe West Country/Welsh Borders (centre) on their contact page. The Tories appear to be favouring a Susan Cooper-a-like in Ann Ducker (right).

Mr Kearney has a colourful CV, starting as a farming student, becoming a commodity trader, then various businesses, and now CEO of the Regenerate Trust he set up with his partner in 1989. Which, in common with many local Lib Dem operations, appears to have a whiff of a franchise operation about it. Family business, charity, pyramid operation?

Uk Polling Report profile the constituency and show us the incumbent boy candidates. These include Labour's trainspotter of a candidate Richard "Basher" Mackenzie, someone that Reading Jane, who knows about such things, believes might be sacrificed by Malcolm Powers (South East Labour) to avoid any embarrassment. Perhaps she be fancying a return to the fray?


UPDATE Weds 14:43: Kearney lives in Plymouth or thereabouts and works in Shrewsbury and is not the Lib Dem councillor of the same name from Medway. He was an instant local in the Lib Dem practice on renting a room in the town.

Man Wit Lib Dems: Does Cash Card Trump Race Card?

Further to the Lib Dem Voice post on Henley Selections you'll never guess who turned up in comments?

Former Manchester Withington Lib Dem candidate Yasmin Zalzala that's who. With much of her own painful story posted, with exclusive emails and transcripts. Any ellipsis in this extract from LDV comments indicates other comments, not relevant to this post, have been redacted.

# Yasmin Zalzala Says 28th May 2008 at 9:44 pm
The Lib Dems keep claiming there are by-election rules for selecting a candidate which includes dumping the locally selected candidate when one is in situ.
I was with the party for many years and do not recall such a rule.
Is it in the constitution? Perhaps someone would be kind enough to direct me to the relevant info?
...
# Mark Pack Says 28th May 2008 at 10:39 pm
Clause 11.6 of the party’s federal constitution says that if there is a Parliamentary by-election a new selection process is run.
It has been there for at least eighteen years; the copy I just checked was dated 1990, though I think it was there right from the formation of the party.
PS Russ: the party followed its normal democratic rules for selecting a candidate, with party members having a choice of who to vote for. That’s very different from what the Conservatives did, sending in their party leader to order the local party to tear up its process.
...
# Chris Paul Says: 29th May 2008 at 12:11 pm
Yasmin of course was dumped even though there was no by-election. In favour of her agent the despicable John Hospital Hoax Leech. And she was dumped with comments that as an Iraqi, woman, muslim, BME she was a liability. Something that she has been trying to address ever since.
Interestingly the ward where Yasmin heroically stood over several years is Old Moat and from which she increased the Lib Dem vote in the constituency hand over fist in 97 and 01. And then they go and select an Asian, Muslim guy this time, despite using ethnicity and religion as part of their Yasmin dumping philosophy for 05.
Perhaps this decision has something to do not with any change of heart but with mercenary interests. Sufiyan Rana who was the unsuccessful candidate is credited with giving £2,500 to John Leech’s constituency funds on 31 March 2008. Just five weeks before this election.

# James Graham Says 29th May 2008 at 12:18 pm
"And then they go and select an Asian, Muslim guy this time, despite using ethnicity and religion as part of their Yasmin dumping philosophy for 05."
You do love to undermine your own argument don’t you Chris? If the party was so racist in the manner that you suggest, why would it do that?
It couldn’t be something to do with the quality of the respective candidates, could it? Or are you incapable of evaluating people on any basis other than the colour of their skin?
...
# Chris Paul Says 29th May 2008 at 1:11 pm
My point dear James Graham is that this candidate - who lives miles away, past Manchester Gorton and Manchester Central in the new Blackley constituency and so ticks few if any Lib Dem boxes - gave £2500 and that this may have overcome the kind of objections made to Yasmin’s candidacy. Those remain indefensible.
Yes, of course Rana could have more going for him as a candidate than Zalzala. I wouldn’t say so myself. He and his big brother are amiable, over confident clots. But that’s not the point.
Man Wit Lib Dems did not say to Yasmin that she was no longer good enough. They said she was female, BME, Muslim and that’s why she had to go.
But Rana provided a timely cash donation.

No race or gender card was played in the case of Henley as far as I know. Though they have it seems upset some party members and picked an out of town gentleman.

But I continue to be amazed that Lib Dems likes James Graham simply cannot or will not engage with the substantive points.

Manchester Withington Lib Dems specifically passed over Yasmin Zalzala as their candidate because of her race, religion and gender. This is a serious enough problem for them.

Now they have installed a candidate - solicitor Sufiya Rana - who lives and works about ten miles from the constituency, and who is clearly Asian and Muslim. Contemporaneously Mr Rana has donated £2,500 in cash to John Leech's constituency funds. The cash card trumps the constituency race card? I really think we should be told.


This picture shows Simple Simon Ashley joining famous ex-Lib Dem Sajjad Karim in welcoming welcoming Left to Right Moin Azma and Sufiyan Rana (partners in the Azmi Rana firm) to the Lib Dems. Their connection to Labour was I think rather tenuous. Sufiyan's brother "Sham" is also a Lib Dem candidate. Perhaps a vote or two in the past. From Asian Image.

The only other donations actually recorded at the Electoral Commission (there are various others in medium and large four-figure amounts to my certain knowledge) in Manchester towards Lib Dem units since 2001 have been some £23,000 donated under strained circumstances by Angela Gallagher, who had also been allowed to be a candidate, and £8,000 of a possible £45,000+ of councillor allowances - all promised in writing, but 80% withheld so far - from Cllr John Leech MP himself. Hat tip on Rana donation: David Ottewell

Libdemologists: Again Dump Local Candidate in Henley

Reading between the lines at Lib Dem Voice they have again dumped a local candidate for the Henley by-election. The Tories have not yet picked, though it looks like the local party have given Stanley Johnson the bum's rush though failing to achieve the open primary they wanted.

Three local councillors have been shortlisted and the selection is tomorrow, Friday. Cllr Anne Ducker (right) of Goring-upon-Thames being the hot favourite.

Meanwhile Tories are also mischieviously suggesting that Mark Oaten will depart Winchester at the same time making for a double header Tory-Lib challenge. Meanwhile son-of-his-father Zac "Frank" Goldsmith may be preparing the ground for a hostile takeover of Sainsburys. Probably using his dad's patent Greenmail tactics.

Iain Dale: Eating Humble Pie on Sun Whip Vendetta

Good to see Iain Dale admitting he was wrong. HERE. Katherine Bergen of the famous Whip column in the super soaraway Sun has a cracking exclusive about Iain's Little Chipmunk Hazel Blears. Iain has been man enough to admit his ongoing campaign of sly attacks and hypocritical hyper criticisms was quite wrong. He is eating great dollops of humble pie and promising to never do it again. He has turned his spite on The Mirror and Jacqui Smith instead.

The Whip story? As we reported on the eve of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election all sorts have made Burke's Peerage and Gentry. Prezza, Doddy, Sian Lloyd, Cilla, a used-car salesman called Bob Skinner.

Great ammunition you'd have thought for avid LOL reader Hazel to throw back in Francis Maude's face when - on last week's Question Time - he jeered about the Dunwoody entry in the now rather shabby Toff's Bible? But Hazey was strangely silent; like a chipmunk caught in the headlights.

Why is that? Because she herself is a listed Burke!

UPDATE 12:19: For some reason known only to himself Danny Finklestein has congratulated Dale on his apology for a post. Iain just enjoys slagging off women opponents and rivals. He should not be encouraged in that unworthy trait.

Godson: Prophet of Johnson's Routemaster Resurrection

Remember Dean Godson? - the research chief cum assassin at Policy Exchange - roasted by Paxo over a pile of steaming doo doos about mosques.

Having been known to jeer at him for his only direct PEx output - on the trivial matter of London buses - I now find that I should not have underestimated this snake.

Godson's bussy propaganda Bible became the chapter and verse for Mayor Boris's "success". That "success" continues to unravel to Londoners' cost here and here.

COLOURWAYS: Bus Colour above by Photoshop error, but it'll do.

Nadine Dorries: Has Now Used Up Quota of Divorces

Marriage Guidance expert Nadine Dorries MP reveals in the course of a girt great gush on her blooming blog - still short of proper permalinks - that two of five marriages end in divorce. Does this mean that her next three will be alright? Anyone that knows the circumstances of Nads' second divorce may find her empathy a bit hard to stomach.

Kerry McCarthy: Blog Saves Trains from Lib Dem Cuts

Bristol MP Kerry McCarthy has a blog here which I've found thanks to Hopi Sen. Lobbying on Bristol's Transport needs has paid off. It was a McCarthy EDM aiming to save the Severn beach line from diminished service after Lib Dem cuts which John Leech MP refused to sign. In fact, though he missed signing the attempted deflection of blame tabled by Stephen Williams MP he did help generate an amendment effectively supporting Bristol Lib Dems with their cut in subsidy.

Not quite what I had in mind when I asked a local MP to intercede.

The short-lived Lib Dem regime in the Council House was swiftly ended, and the service - which I used to use twice a day, commuting from Sea Mills station (above) - now has a future with direct subsidy restored. Thanks to Kerry, PPC Paul Smith and others. No thanks to John Leech MP, John Hemming MP and the other Lib Dem hatchet men.

Environment: Vote Blue Go To Hell in Low Tax Hummer

'Twas hilarious seeing closet "Christian Right" fundie and Environment Shadow Peter Ainsworth MP having to go on BBC Newsnight tonight and pretend that - so soon after fighting "Three Elections and a Funeral" on Vote Blue Go Green - there was still a glimmer of life in the Tory Green Agenda.

Er, that Dave Cameron was still watching the debate with interest was actually the best he could do.

Phil Woolas MP meanwhile seemed reasonable, and assertive rather then aggressive with it.

While every last bit of the Cuddly Nu Tory myth on environmental concern - huskies, bicycles, windmills, executive jets - has completely collapsed.

The Nu Tory front organisation The Taxpayers' Alliance declared the Green Frost completely over almost a full week ago. 22 minutes in to this Newsnight piece.

"Last night (Friday 23) Matthew Elliott, of Tory Front, the Mindless Industrial Clots-funded the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'Now the credit crunch has hit people's pockets, there's no longer any public appetite for higher green taxes.'"

UPDATE WED 10:19: "Hummer" substituted for "Handcart" which as Lorenzo points out is a very green form of haulage.

Dale's Diary Envy: LOL Fact Check Service

This very morning Mr Dale harrumphed and claimed that his least favourite National Inky diarist, the girly diarist Katherine Bergen of the Sun's Whip column had lifted "at least a third" of her stories today "from the Independent".

Dale is nursing a grudge based on acute diary envy, and who knows what else? Girls can of course piss much higher and much farther than boys. Could be KB beat ID in a pissing contest one time?

In the interests of fair play LOL has wandered into Morrisons and scoped the Whip's content. There are six stories. So at least a third means, er, two. But which two would that be?

Story one. Sir George Young, the privatiser of Railtrack, having a laugh about the West Coast Mainline. Nicked from the Independent? Not guilty. Though similar fare can be found on Young's "on a lighter note' blog (20 May) and indeed in the Birmingham Post (22 May). And all over really. Proper meme.

Story two. Portraits of old queens. Katherine sticks a detail from a pic from Peter Phillips' nuptials and rather agrees with the Torygraph that this Freud effort, with fraud (right) may be the best portrait of her reign".

Story three. Something about Ffion Hague, 14 pints of bitter, and an encounter with David Lloyd-George, the louche former statesman and peerage seller. In The Independent? No, sadly it is not. Another meme lost on the Indy.

Story four. Matt Frei has a book out. This was in The Independent yesterday. And also meme like in 1000 other places, including The Whip today. Coincidence? I rather think so.

Story five. Intrepid M Dame Judi Dench ignoring safety advice and heading straight for the barrio, favella, off piste, whatever. Like you do. Also fails to search up from The Independent.

Story six. Bit of a stocking filler. Something or other about Caroline Flint. And yes, The Indy did have a "You Ask The Questions" piece yesterday. Nothing extraordinary in that. Pretty meme-ish. Zeitgeist as a German scholar like Dale might have it.

For my money: Katherine Bergen 6, Iain Dale 0. Again.

Worse than a drubbing by United.

Here's a post of mine from a year ago linking Dale's former vendetta against Melissa Kite, with his vendetta against Katherine Bergen, and the near certainty according to rightist bloggers than Cameron was about to jump or be pushed.

How prescient. Things have been quite fluid this last year, no?

The first fifteen (count 'em) hits searching for "Sun Whip" on a Google search of Iain's site (which returned 466) are all direct references to The Whip, mostly negative or highly negative.

Harriet Harman: Far From the Maddening Fraud

In the light of her own campaign of fibbery and sentiment to persuade MPs to vote for change in the abortion limit - including a sordid alliance with far right "christian" elements - it seems quite remarkable that the maddening fraud Nadine Dorries should describe opponents using true facts and real figures to make their own case as "guilty" of whipping. Here's the Mail quoting the Fibber:

‘The tactics used to defeat my proposals were disgraceful,’ said Ms Dorries. ‘Ms Harman ran a fully-fledged whipping operation in all but name. This was supposed to be a non-political debate but she has politicised it.
‘The case for reducing the time limit for abortions to 20 weeks is irrefutable both on moral and scientific grounds. We are not giving up on this. From now on, the gloves are off.’

Goodness me. So all that lying and cheating (and "whipping") was Nads with the gloves on? Response please:

Ms Harman last night denied she had acted improperly. ‘It is deplorable that people who lost the argument now attempt to cry foul,’ she said. ‘It was a free vote and I worked with others to ensure that as many MPs as possible voted for the status quo.
‘We won because we had the most persuasive arguments. It is totally untrue that there was any kind of whipping operation.’

PICTURE FROM THE MAIL: Neither Harman nor the Deputy Speaker can believe the lies tripping off Nadine's forked tongue. Below, the changes in the timing of terminations under the current and previous limit (BBC). The survival rate at 23 weeks has remained completely unchanged in the last two decades.

So Weak: Dale Plumbs Depths of Diary Envy

This proven case post from Foolish Interruption shows crass plagiarism at work, while this completely unevidenced accusation from Iain Dale's Diary is the latest installment of a vendetta against a particular female diarist. "Pathetic!"*

* Hat tip for this word: Iain Dale.

James Purnell: Practices Leader Schtick on French Telly

J. Purnell, Ministre britanique
by FRANCE_24

Tameside Mafia also has the English language version. Jimmy Boy did it bilingually. Formidable. But as some wag enquired at TM: Was he actually there?

Captain Beefheart is Right: We Are All Distant Cousins

Distant Cousins, there's a limited supply said Don Van Vliet who is therefore related to Rupa Huq by proclamation. Obama and Bush too, worst luck. Meanwhile old McCain is just off the boat?

TRIVIA: The name Distant Cousins has been used by at least three recorded bands.

The Manchester Cousins, active 1986-1993 approx, featured some drunken late night negotiations right here in Chorlton where I blog back in 1988 when a one time manager purchased the name from a serial defector, worried by Doreen's babies "Doom" and "Gloom", for £50 cash.

Or was it £60? I forget.

Doom and Gloom are now 20 years old. Doreen ain't changed a bit. Congratulations!

Iain Dale: Not Seeking to Make a Party Political Point

Iain Dale chooses the moment of a Sunday Times revelation that Alan and Anne Keen MPs claimed some life insurance to bear down hard on expenses. Now I don't know anything about the particular circumstances of this cover, and there's not much at the Times, though it does call it a "scam"; that's in the headline only by the way which may mean something to lawyers out there.

If this is indeed a "scam", though apparently fully approved, the book should be thrown at all responsible and the whole expenses regime be unpacked and repacked fit for purpose.

But I'm struck by Iain's weaselish:

I'm not actually seeking to make a party political point out of this as I am sure there are some odd expenses which have come to light for Conservative MPs too.

Which is pretty rich given his point blank REFUSAL to cover the far greater scams perpetrated by his bessie mate Derek Conway which refusal he excused robustly, yet rather feebly, HERE.

Yes, indeed Iain, "there are some odd expenses which have come to light for Conservative MPs too". And your claim to not make a party political point is destroyed when you don't cover those.

IMAGE: From Rue Britannia

Harry's Place: Afghanistan Spanish Civil War A/Illusion

Harry's place intriguingly links to one Terry Glavin's piece on the left and Afghanistan which concludes that the War there is the modern equivalent of the Spanish Civil War.

While I can understand and accept most of the analysis - without having been a supporter of the original retribution war mission - I don't think the Spanish War comparison really works.

Except perhaps for those recruiting Jihadis for the anti-Great Satan wars of the day. With an analysis that sees George Bush, the USA and the various Coalition as Imperialists, Fascists, Capitalists in place of Franco, and preferring their own locally sourced Imperialist, Fascist etc elements.

The Left's response to these wars, when asked for directions for a way out, is often to say: "Oh, I'd not be starting from where you are now, if I were you matey". Fairly useless I'd have to say. But Glavin - a Canadian lefty - has gone too far I think with this comparison.

Meanwhile, with the odd reference to Harry's Place, there was an interesting guest post at Lib Dem Voice supporting the doctrine of Liberal Interventionism.

Lively discussion to which one Martin Land contributed this (reproduced in full) on 21st May 2008 at 4:51 pm:

The fundamental, underlying principle of a future LD government should be that we would mind our own business, at every level and in every situation.

The fundamental difficulty with this of course is defining "our own business" in these matters. And I suspect the likes of Paddy Ashdown and others in Lib Dem ranks define our own business in different terms to Mr Land. Mostly on the quiet.

And I had to laugh out loud at the idea others argued that Liberalism in Kabul could come from the grass roots, the pooper scooping, the pothole spotting and the pavement politics we know and love here in the UK.

Congratulations to Daniel Furr - an independent Liberal - for donning his tin hat and putting his head above the parapet. Daniel blogs at My Telegraph. His sub title is The Protectorate and his avatar a "joyous" scene from the rather later detachment of Louis XVI from the body politic (above) which I tracked down thanks to Google and the Cruel Animal blog with a view.

Dave's Part: Giving The Left List the Oxygen of Publicity

Dave Osler gives the Left List aka ReesSpect a chance to hoist themselves, and they do. With tawdry tales of Bramhall wankers wenching in Manchester no less. Quite a metaphor for the "high stakes gamble" of supporting a lost cause.

Miliband X Factor: Brown Sugar, Just Around Midnight

Mischief in The Sunday Times as they report an alleged post-Marxist plot:

David Miliband is preparing to throw his hat into the ring in a leadership contest to “save new Labour” after the party’s disastrous defeat in last week’s Crewe & Nantwich by-election.
The foreign secretary has confided to friends that he is prepared to stand for the leadership if a critical mass of backbenchers turn against Gordon Brown.
He is discussing a strategy to position himself for the top job without personally engineering the prime minister’s downfall.

The Miliband fan club may have to dust off their prematurely aborted Digital Shrine. But then again, expect further cosying up from the young blade.