Phil Collins

Labour has to reinvent itself to fight the next general election, says Phil Collins. The leadership contenders must look to the party’s radical roots So, they were looking in the wrong place all along. For years now the Labour party has been seeking a steely assassin to deal with its unelectable leader. Finally, where James Purnell failed tragically and Geoff Hoon failed farcically, Nick Clegg has succeeded. Gordon Brown has gone and the Labour party is even more leaderless than when he was actually there. Now that Britain has finally settled on a government, the campaigns will start. Or rather, resume. Discreet campaigning has been going on for some time. For Ed Balls, that means visiting constituency dinners and spending Saturdays writing the front half of the Sunday papers.

Dave Prentis, your time is nigh. Bob Crow, the country needs you at this hour. Derek Simpson, prepare for the call of history. As trade union leaders gather in Liverpool for the annual Trades Union Congress, their agenda items give no hint of the drama to come. Worthy motions will call forth windy speeches on composite resolutions about rights at work, equality in the workplace and public spending. Newspaper reports will be sparse and television coverage limited to five seconds of shouting from an unknown delegate and a short clip from the Prime Minister’s speech. The press may, whisper it, give short shrift to Salvador Valdes Mesa, the General Secretary of the Cuban Workers’ Confederation. All in all, there will be little sense of anything important unfolding.