The Labour leadership election must be fair and seen to be fair. Above all, it must not be a Unite-driven coronation. When Len McCluskey says “it is essential that the correct leader emerges” and threatens that, if not, his union will leave Labour, his bullying has to be flatly rejected and his putative departure welcomed if that is what the union wants. - Charles Clarke, The Times
Having omitted to notice its imminent destruction, Labour is now engaged in the familiar pastime of making a bad situation worse. Its self-prescribed remedy, a leadership contest resembling a long night of the soul, is less likely to rescue the party from its blight than to propel it to oblivion. - Mary Riddell, Daily Telegraph
Today the Labour hole looks so infernal, and the obstacles to recovery so monumental, that fretting over Len McCluskey of Unite seems equivalent to a stage 4 liver cancer patient panicking about an ingrowing toenail. Yet there is some fretfulness about Labour’s chief bankroller clumsily flexing his union’s financial muscle in the twin causes of displacing one Labour leader and electing another. - Matthew Norman, The Independent
Politicians have decided that they don't need us any more. They are connecting directly with the voters. And if our papers can't do better than clumsy photoshopping, character assassinations and propaganda, readers will soon decide that they don't need us either. Editor's blog: We're giving the enemy more ammunition