Congratulations to Harriet Harman on winning the Deputy Leadership contest with a barn-storming 18.95% of the vote. It appears that most pundits misjudged how second and third choices would affect the result. When I call her mediocre yesterday, I was being very charitable. Check out her the conclusion to her latest blog entry.
Harriet is asserting that four journos have set out her political agenda more clearly than she could!!! So, don't bother with Harriet's blog - its most worrying feature is that it is actually written by Harriet according to its webmaster. Go straight to the vague and vacuous delphic pronouncements from the name-checked scribes.
Both Johann Hari and Jackie Ashley (horrendous article) take a wild swipe at John Prescott and Alan Johnson's closeness to him. Whilst Johann seems to think that Harriet's policies will mean mothers magically spending more time with kids (presumably by regulating their jobs out of existence) Jackie is pushing for the government to encourage more 24/7 workplaces which sounds pretty close to hell.
The main thrust of Polly Toynbee's article is Harriet's mission to add more costs and regulation onto private businesses and a vague targetting of the "filthy rich". I have to admit I almost warmed to Harriet in reading Rachel Sylvester's piece. I hope Harriet follows through on her stated opposition to grace and favour houses.
The fact that Harriet is particularly attuned to "women's" issues such as child-care, maternity leave and domestic violence is fine and could be used by Labour to electoral advantage. The problem is her "solutions" whack other groups namely men, businesses and the taxpayer and usually do not even effectively tackle the issue at hand.
