Day five: "No-one is saying the market has no role to play in education, health and public services. Of course it has a role."
Day six: "It's important we incentivise house-builders to start building the homes we need. No-one is saying we should go back to building sink estates."
Day seven: "Maduro needs to prove to the world that Venezuela is not hiding weapons of mass destruction. No-one is saying that an invasion is off the table."
Day eight: "I've said some cruel things about Rupert Murdoch in the past, but i'd like to use my column today to urge you all as readers of
The Sun that the meeting i had with him yesterday was very inspiring. No-one is saying we need to regulate the media - this isn't North Korea."
This is the thing. After the Leveson enquiry I had a lot of respect for him and would have probably voted for him to be leader afterwards. How can we know how any contender will work out? Who can we trust to continue what Corbyn has started and not just quietly pop it in the bin after getting us on side by using the same language?
Much as i'd love Corbyn to be PM, i think if brexit goes through and a GE doesn't appear imminent, he'll stand down. Can't easily afford to stand down before then as it'll be seen as irresponsible navel-gazing. He will want to be sure with those close to him that they've got a candidate they'll rally behind and who will keep McDonnell as shadow chancellor (and Corbyn to foreign?). I suspect that will be RLB, but there's a chance it could be Thornberry who i'd be a bit more wary of. Won't be McDonnell as (a) he's a bloke and they won't want another bloke even though obviously that's not a sensible reason in itself; (b) he has a dodgy ticker and chancellor is more than enough without the extra stress and scrutiny of the top job; (c) he's probably more use in number 11 in both policy terms and in terms of facing all the same propaganda smears that Corbyn's faced.
What can we do except make the best assessment we can and keep the grass roots pressure on? Get a decent left-winger on the ticket who will definitely get enough nominations (should be a lot easier now) and not collapse in in-fighting over it. I'd have concerns about Thornberry, Rayner and Lewis, but think about where we are now compared to Diane Abbott going through the motions in the 2010 leadership election.
