Challenging this process mid-term and suggesting that maybe the leader isn’t working out isn’t democracy, it’s a disloyal coup and any MPs involved in this will be demoted, if not expelled.

Come on now, issuing a different basic rule of politics every six months is a blogger’s prerogative.

So what?

Come March 2013 things will have been sorted.

All the ranting/pontificating on various blogs will not alter that.

What is clear is that this conference has finally put the LP caucus in its place.

Hence the drama.

Roll on March 2013!

As an observation I suspect half of Labours problem is that after a decade of rule by the Iron Lady and Cullie they are now left without senior members with initiative, beyond the one horse wonder bully boys & girls like Mallard and King. Goffs just ineffective as a strong leader. So we have the modern NZ Labour party, a mad house of competing factions.

Succession planning anyone….Mike?

dissimulate at least, there’s a reason the main British political parties go through the Kabuki of a stalking horse.

@Chris Bull, the Greens have an easier time partly because their brand is clear and they can rally round “save the planet” rhetoric fairly easily. Labour have it lot harder with broader social equity issues because they’re harder problems to deal with. If hey were easy then Clark and Cullen would have solved all our problems.

I still sense though that Labour, to get votes, is trying to convince the electorate that the problems are simple and have simple solutions which aren’t being implemented because the Nats are evil adherents to neo-liberalism. Which I think is simplistic and hasn’t got much traction with the electorate so far.

Here’s one I thought of, right off the top of my head without any media training whatsoever: “The caucus are united behind David Shearer, and fully committed to winning the 2014 election.”