A Thankless Task for 5 Years?

One of my favourite political stories is that of the new MP in the 1950s who shuffled nervously into the Chamber and, looking across at the Opposition benches, remarked to the great Winston Churchill, "At least you get a good view of the enemy from here." To which Churchill replied, "That, my boy, is the Opposition. The enemy are behind you."

This kind of thought must be going through the minds of David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, John McDonnell, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott right now as they jostle to get their nominations for leadership of the Labour Party. (And there surely can't be any more candidates. They need 33 MPs as backers so mathematically, allowing for a few who will not back anyone at this stage, we must have reached critical mass.)

Leader of the Opposition is a strange job in a way. Everyone knows - as David Cameron once acknowledged in an interview - that it isn't really the job you want. The whole thing is one massive application process for the job of Prime Minister. There have been eight full-time Leaders of the Opposition in the last thirty years - but only two of them (Blair and Cameron) have gone on to the top job.

Sensible people must be hoping for a strong Opposition this time round. The insipid nature of Labour's opposition in the 80s and early 90s, and the limp and ineffectual Tory opposition under William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, contributed to their adversaries' victory as much as any strengths of the government did. Voters didn't really care much for either of these long-running governments after 8 years or so, but the alternative didn't appeal much either.

Labour Uncut has the lowdown on the latest state of play with nominations.

And this looks like an interesting conference...