Yes. Exactly this. They just blew whatever opportunities the conference gave them by letting media clowns like Gower and Garner stampede them whichever way said clowns want. The senior Labour MPs now look even less like a potential govt than they did a few weeks ago.

And what really grates is that for the past few days the Shearer Team have been very good at generating media coverage, setting the agenda, inserting the snappy soundbites, being totally on-message and so … they got the result they wanted.

Which is what we’ve been begging them to do for the past four years. They’ve been really bad at Comms 101 … until it was time to fight for their own political lives.

If only they fought National – no, fought for us – with the same passion.

If only Labour had a leader that could show some authority: “We’ve actually just announced some really important policy that deserves to be talked about and I refuse to enter into political games. Let’s start talking about our CGT”

Instead he’s trying for “Respec’ Maa Authoritaa” and coming across like an insecure stool pidgeon.

I don’t understand why Shearer and his people allowed this to distract from what should have been an opportunity to get their policy in the media. The media obviously aren’t blameless in this, but it seems like the Labour caucus are doing nothing to try and refocus things back onto the very important things that apparently also took place there.

Where the hell the were the Labour Party voters in the last two general elections?

Caucus members and their reliance on focus groups and internal gossip have long lost touch with their electoral roots, let alone their party membership.

Media gossipists do not have any authority. At best they are observers.

could have been luck or it could have been well-managed government with effective leadership. something neither big party can boast about atm.

… he has no reason not to sit on the back-bench and leak material that will damage Shearer’s supporters and continue to undermine his leadership.

Excuse me, I’ve got to go and bang my head on the table for a bit.

seems to be his one claim to fame. maybe he got lucky at the time having Clark and Cullen as mentors.

Shearer looks like he might want to be back with the UN tackling more civilised tasks such as bringing peace to the Middle East.