91Èȱ¬

Commentators discuss the results of Labour's election of 19 MPs into the shadow cabinet, who are yet to be assigned roles by Labour leader Ed Miliband.

whether the 30 candidates who didn't make it were victims of "alphabetical discrimination":

"One of the extraordinary features of Labour's shadow cabinet election is that all the nineteen winners had surnames starting with letters in the first half of the alphabet.
Ìý
"So highly competent MPs such as Stephen Timms, Sean Woodward, Emily Thornberry and Stephen Twigg did not manger to garner enough votes to make it across the line.
Ìý
"It's a well-known electoral phenomenon, particularly when you have a long list of candidates, that those who are in the top part of the ballot paper do better than those towards the bottom."

that the new cabinet is overwhelmingly white, privileged and heterosexual, going against Labour's inclusion agenda:

"Of the 19 people elected, eight went to fee-paying schools and two went to grammars. Of the other three people in the Shadow Cabinet, two were educated privately and one at a grammar. In other words, a majority did not go to comprehensives. If you include Ed Miliband, six members of Labour's front bench team did PPE at Oxford and nine went to either Oxford or Cambridge. So much for social diversity."

that of the 49 people who ran for the shadow cabinet, only nine backed Ed Miliband for Labour leadership. He compares this isolation to that of Margaret Thatcher, with one difference:

Ìý

"From the off, Thatcher was shored up and advised by such allies and outriders as Keith Joseph, Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson. Every bit as important was the presence of her one-time rival Willie Whitelaw, who hardly carried a copy of The Road to Serfdom in his briefcase but came to play a vital role in steadying the Tory ship.
Ìý
"Bluntly put, even in the wake of the shadow cabinet election, Ed Miliband still has no Willie."

The the notable losers and highlights Shaun Woodward as a double loser:

"A former That's Life producer, defector to Labour and source of much advice for Gordon Brown, the former Northern Ireland Secretary Woodward will be appalled at being snubbed by his party. Just think: if he had stayed with the Tories he might be in the cabinet now."

that Yvette's Cooper's chances at getting the much-talked-about shadow chancellor job might be helped after gathering the most votes:

"The campaign for Yvette Cooper to be appointed shadow chancellor gathers apace: after a brilliant week in which she skewered George Osborne on his child benefit cut and his benefits cap, Mrs Balls did not just top the shadow cabinet election, she won it by a 40-vote margin over second-placed John Healey and secured the votes of 232 out of 258 Labour MPs. Impressive!"

Links in full

•
•
•
•
•