Thank you. It's been fun to write this so far, and it's reassuring that someone else has noticed the Darling I portray in this latest update. It's a little exaggerated, of course, just like Brown's erratic mood swings throughout the update. After a cast of relatively level-headed and erudite bureaucrats and politicians in Agent Lavender, I've deliberately tried to depict the cast here as much less 'filmic', and more flawed. That's more fun to write, and it helps up the stakes in a battle for the soul of the Labour Party - and for the Premiership itself.
TLIAW: For Want Of A Paragraph
- Thread starter Meadow
- Start date
Thank you. It's been fun to write this so far, and it's reassuring that someone else has noticed the Darling I portray in this latest update. It's a little exaggerated, of course, just like Brown's erratic mood swings throughout the update. After a cast of relatively level-headed and erudite bureaucrats and politicians in Agent Lavender, I've deliberately tried to depict the cast here as much less 'filmic', and more flawed. That's more fun to write, and it helps up the stakes in a battle for the soul of the Labour Party - and for the Premiership itself.
Given the stresses they are under here - their party imploding under them and their world imploding around them - I can see them getting exaggerated.
fasquardon
Thande
Donor
That comparison makes me see it better, yes.
"I am disappointed to note that S&P is threatening a downgrade due to your profligacy, Gordon. By the way, would you be interested in some payment protection insurance?"
Well spotted, I had missed that!
I've not commented on this yet - best put that right...
I find myself agreeing with Gordon here - why is Mili-D doing this now, when he didn't stand in the leadership election barely a year before? I mean, obviously if he didn't do it we wouldn't have a story, but his motivations are a mystery to me.
Nevertheless, this is wonderfully written as ever; I can't wait to see how the whole sorry saga unfolds.
I find myself agreeing with Gordon here - why is Mili-D doing this now, when he didn't stand in the leadership election barely a year before? I mean, obviously if he didn't do it we wouldn't have a story, but his motivations are a mystery to me.
Nevertheless, this is wonderfully written as ever; I can't wait to see how the whole sorry saga unfolds.
I agree with both you and Gordon - but remember how much of this is OTL. The Guardian article was the closest Mili-D came to challenging Brown directly, and it was indeed published on 28 July 2008. By the September of that year - again, IOTL - there was a serious attempt to force a leadership election somehow. There's some links on page one of this thread reporting on it.
Brown's leadership didn't just start to go wrong with the election that wasn't, it does appear that it went into free-fall almost immediately. Labour, after years of electoral invincibility under Blair, were just not psychologically ready for that. Miliband's coup - aborted IOTL, pressed ahead ITTL - was a symptom of that newfound terrifying sense of vulnerability.
Glad you're enjoying the writing - I just had to remind myself this is not a full length TL, and while I'm not sure it'll be done inside a week, I believe it'll be over by Christmas (insert joke).
Few people outside the Labour Party had even heard of him, but Ray Collins was one of the only men in Britain who could talk to cabinet ministers like they were naughty schoolchildren and get away with it.
"Lads," the General Secretary began with an exasperated sigh, "I'm going to say it again: The rules. Are the rules. Are the rules."
David Miliband strained to make sure what he said next didn't come out as a whine.
"But there's clear support for a challenge -"
Collins rounded on him.
"Simple question, David. If I add six to thirty-five, do I get seventy-one?
"Ray -"
"Do I get seventy-one?"
James stepped forward, putting a hand on David's arm.
"No, Ray. You don't. And we take the point."
"You're taking the piss, that's what you're doing," snarled Collins, his inner London tones giving him the appearance of a supporting character in a Guy Ritchie film. Miliband sweated, while Patricia Hewitt awkwardly fiddled with her phone. At the back of the room, Jim Murphy was staring at his shoes, while Alan Milburn had his hands in his pockets and his eyes closed. Charlie Falconer gave a loud sigh. He'd cautioned against this idea ever since he began offering the plotters legal advice, but he had attended the meeting to give it a bit of weight.
As Collins fumed and went back to reading the set of 'proposals' the plotters had brought with them, Miliband pondered the plot's 'weight problem'. Milburn had commented on such last night, and it was true that the big beast uptake had been disappointing. Straw had been believed to be a pushover, but his support for Brown had actually strengthened over the weekend. "Gordon Brown is the man with the experience, the intellect, and the strategy to take us through these difficult times," he'd said in a fairly unequivocal interview on The World This Weekend. While James was sure the Justice Secretary was just after the job himself, and so wouldn't participate in the coronation of a rival, David felt certain there was an altogether more base cause of Straw's distaste for the coup. He was still getting to the bottom of who had sent one too many pushy emails.
Then there was Alistair: always an outside hope for the plot, he was nevertheless such a potential silver bullet that the plotters had felt they at least had to try to court him. No luck, and he had in fact expressed "full support" for Brown and "anger" with the plotters over the weekend. Jacqui Smith wasn't a fan of Gordon's manner, but had basically no reason to turn on Brown - and it wasn't certain she even even the acumen to pull such a piece of skullduggery off if she wanted to. Alan was staying quiet, but was probably functioning as a cuckoo in the Cabinet for now. Ed was definitely a cuckoo, texting David regularly with sad smiley faces indicating another failed attempt to talk Brown into seeing the plotters' side of the argument. Harriet had declared her neutrality initially, but was now coming out for the status quo, and an end to "distracting questions". As Deputy, however, she had stressed that if party mechanisms for a challenge allowed one to go ahead, she would not stand in the way of proceedings. It was the political equivalent of climbing to the top of a sinking ship and saying you'd be perfectly happy for other people to start looking for lifeboats.
Purnell tried to restart the conversation with Collins.
"Ray, we're sorry that we came across as disrespectful - to you or the Party. But you can see what we mean, surely? 40-odd MPs getting behind a challenge is unprecedented, and I can tell you we've got another fifteen who are going to come forward once it's definite."
The General Secretary slammed the folder down onto the desk.
"You just don't get it, do you?"
Alan Milburn stepped forward.
"Ray, come on, calm down. You're being -"
"Don't you start," Collins snapped, before turning back to Purnell, "look, I want to believe that you're all doing this for the good of the Party. Really, I do. But I'm struggling to see how - especially if you go ahead with this stupid letter-writing campaign to the NEC. It has no legal relevance, and who do you think we are? The Tories?"
Patricia gasped. David narrowed his eyes.
"Ray, that's a bit much," he said, suppressing a flash of anger.
"No, I don't think it is," said Collins bluntly, "going public like this is not the way we do things. We're a movement, a united movement, and loyalty is everything. We don't knife our leaders, and especially not our PMs."
Lord Falconer piped up from the back.
"This is an almost unprecedented situation - almost -"
"Charlie, I respect you, but if you compare our Prime Minister to Ramsay MacDonald, I swear to Bevan almighty that I will put my fist through your teeth."
Falconer wilted. Ray sighed.
"I'm sorry," he said, "that was too far. But you can see what I'm up against, lads, can't you? You're trying to tear the party apart, at a time when the country needs us to be strong. A fairer society is not a tea party."
Momentarily confused by the paraphrasing of Mao Zedong, Miliband froze. Jim Murphy finally spoke up.
"I hear what you're saying, Ray, but this is a boil that's got to be lanced. Whoever wins, it'd be good to have a fair and open contest. It's still the summer, no-one will say we're distracting ministers from the serious business of government. Are you sure there's no way we make this happen?"
Collins glowered.
"My advice to the NEC is, has been, and always will be that no ballot papers can be sent out unless 71 nominations are presented to them."
"Yeah, but -" Murphy attempted to interject.
"And if you were all so concerned about having a 'fair and open contest', where the hell were you last year? I had the man himself - Gordon - in here, raging that no-one was standing against him. He wanted to win, of course, but he hated the idea of a coronation. You didn't have an open goal, but you had a clear chance - and you bottled it."
David remained in silence, because Ray was right. The 2007 debacle had been a combination of many factors, not least the fact that very few of the Stop Brown clique had enough humility to deny wanting the crown for themselves. Reid might've stood the best chance then, but Miliband himself wasn't about to walk away from his own decent odds. Alan Johnson insisted he didn't want the job - publicly, no less - but wasn't volunteering to run anyone else's campaign, either. If Tony had just stepped in... well. What-if, what-if, what-if. Any fool could ask what-if. The power to actually switch the points as the train of history rattles over them fell to a select few - and David Miliband was one of them.
"So there's no way to bend the rules," he said quietly, "not even after our rapid increase in support?"
"No way at all," said Ray, "and I wouldn't call it rapid. I'd have estimated there were about 40 of you lot anyway, and the few extras you've won over with promises of Chief Sec and new hospitals don't suggest an insurrection to me -"
"Then," said Miliband, finally cutting Collins off for the first time, "we have nothing more to discuss. For now."
Collins' eyes narrowed.
"'For now?'"
"If we get 71, you'll follow the proper protocols?"
Ray gave a thin smile.
"If you get 71, I'll give you a handjob."
Trying to keep a straight face, David left the room, his would-be vanguard following him.
"What now?" asked Purnell.
"Plan A is off," said Miliband briskly, "we have to do this the hard way - get every nomination we can. We've got until conference, realistically, so that means the 20th of September."
"Plenty of time," said Jim Murphy, clapping Miliband on the back, "we'll get there."
"No question," said a smiling Hewitt. Falconer nodded. Morale was rallying.
"Absolutely," said Milburn, leaning against the wall, "provided nothing disastrous happens between now and then. But what are the odds of that?"
Thande
Donor
Glad to see this back. It does seem hard to see how they'll get the numbers they need for this. Harman has a point when it comes to the ongoing question only damaging the party further.
Interesting to compare and contrast this with what Ares and Makemakean said about how it works with the Social Democrats in Sweden, where you have to insist you don't want to be leader right up until being made leader.
Interesting to compare and contrast this with what Ares and Makemakean said about how it works with the Social Democrats in Sweden, where you have to insist you don't want to be leader right up until being made leader.
Indeed - leadership contests just aren't something that happens in Sweden (or at least not in our party). The party leader is never opposed, and when they resign, the party nominating committee selects a leadership candidate who is almost always elected by acclamation at the special conference. The one time someone tried to declare their candidacy for the leadership, she was basically knifed by the existing leadership (through a rather clever media campaign) and forced to rescind her candidacy.
Alex Richards
Donor
If it's what I think they're talking about, the existing structural issues are far too prevalent and extensive to be able to avoid it happening with a PoD only a couple of months in advance.
Very good stuff, as always.
I can't comment on how realistic the voices are - I know too little of them - but the writing is really compelling.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens, but I can't see David getting to seventy-one. As others have said, there are huge things about to hit the fan in the world's economic institutions. It might be slightly delayed, but it's coming. Anybody wavering isn't going to be encouraged that they need infighting and feuding when the world's financial markets are collapsing around them. Steady hand on the tiller, with Brown and Darling; or Bananaman and his mates from the Sixth Form?
Me too.
I can't comment on how realistic the voices are - I know too little of them - but the writing is really compelling.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens, but I can't see David getting to seventy-one. As others have said, there are huge things about to hit the fan in the world's economic institutions. It might be slightly delayed, but it's coming. Anybody wavering isn't going to be encouraged that they need infighting and feuding when the world's financial markets are collapsing around them. Steady hand on the tiller, with Brown and Darling; or Bananaman and his mates from the Sixth Form?
Thanks to you for this, and to everyone else who's complimented the writing. I plan to get another update out later tonight, so check back before bedtime or first thing tomorrow if you're desperate for a fix.
On the voices, there is obviously some artistic license at work here - I have only met a few of the people we've met in the story, and neither in an intimate setting. All the characters are filling certain archetypes, too - Brown, the mad king; Darling, the scheming but pragmatically loyal lieutenant; Miliband, the self-doubting challenger; Purnell, Miliband's own hot-headed lieutenant; Milburn's brief cameo there as an aloof class act - a kind of Mandy-lite; and Ray Collins, the vulgar but fair bureaucrat. All these men (I'm sorry the story is a bit of a sausagefest, but unlike the January 2010 plot in which Patricia Hewitt was key, the 2008-era stuff was very male) have had these characteristics assigned to them based on their public images and behaviour. Purnell, for instance, resigned on his own because he was just so sick of Brown and the failure of the OTL coups. Ray Collins always gave a sense of being a London boy made good in his conference speeches. Brown as a mad king shouldn't take too much to work out.
I hope the above look 'inside the writer's studio' was informative, and indeed doesn't spoil the sense of AH being crafted here: I'm consulting Rawnsley's New Labour book fairly closely to make sure no-one does anything that contradict their sincere actions IOTL, and a number of the little quotes, proposals and so on have been OTL, just in different circumstances.
Back to the next chapter now...