I wrote a very lengthy post the other day on the subject of the impending contest for the Deputy Leadership, thinking that I could then leave subject safely alone for a while…

…and then Tom Watson goes and points me in the direction of Harriet ‘I’m the one with two X chromosomes’ Harman’s spiffy new website and I discover that she seems absolutely determined to piss me off completely before there’s a proper fucking contest underway.

To some extent, campaign skills are something you’d hope to see in potential Deputy Leader - whatever else you might think of the present incumbent, Prescott’s always been pretty good value in the rallying the faithful stakes as he’s generally good for the kind of Tory-bashing political knockabout that goes down well with a partisan crowd, and I dare that privately he’s probably a scream as he looks to a man who can appreciate the comedic value of a good old knob gag.
So when it comes to choosing his replacement, how well the contenders’ campaign is likely to be a factor in influencing the thinking of many members.

Now, I think I’ve made my views on certain matters fairly clear - I’m all for equality but I’m not a fan of anything that looks tokenistic or that deliberately plays on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation in the hope of gaining an advantage.

So Harriet’s already too heavy emphasis on her possession of two X chromosomes is not going down a bundle with me, not because she two X chromosomes but because as far as I’m concerned her personal chromosomal arrange is completely fucking irrelevant, so harping about it constantly means jack (or jill) shit round here.

So imagine my ‘delight’ on finding that she now has her very own Black and Minority Ethnic Campaign Team - she obviously missed the Government paper (can’t recall which department, but it was one of the heavyweights, Treasury or Home Office) that ‘officially’ dropped the ‘Black and’ prefix in recognition both that there are now a considerable number of white minority communities and that even the majority of non-white ones aren’t actually black, but what the hell, I’m sure she means well.

Quite what relevance this has, again, to whether she’d make a capable Deputy Leader is not entirely clear, although it does mean she’s got Oona King to hold her hand while on the campaign trail, which may go down well in some quarters.

Again, the words ‘fucking irrelevant’ come to mind.

Harriets also gone and got herself a two page ‘puff-piece’ in the Torygraph, which rather through me to begin with as its written by their health correspondent and published in their health section, despite it (and Harriet, who’s the Solictor General as I recall) having precisely fuck all to do with health.

The the explanation came to me - the journo’s a mate of hers - oh good, Harriet’s got a friend at the Torygraph.

Next week, Hilary Benn will be featured in three page interview in ‘Take A Break’ and you’ll an Alan Johnson exclusive in the Sports section of a Mid-Lothian Herald.

And as for her opinion poll from last November…

Harriet Harman is the deputy leadership candidate most likely to increase Labour’s vote at the next general election, a poll indicated today.

The survey, commissioned from independent pollsters YouGov by the constitutional affairs minister herself, found that 15% of voters would be more inclined to vote Labour if she succeeded John Prescott.

What the poll also indicates is that 15% of voters would also be less likely to vote for Labour, if she became Deputy Leader - so the net electoral gain for the Party would be…

…fuck all.

I also see that Kerron’s none too impressed either.

Ho hum…

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