Who'd count on Meacher or McDonnell?

Anthony Barnett (London OK): Tomorrow evening Brown will be debating with both John McDonnell and Michael Meacher, his two potential challengers. The enterprising Sunder Katwala of the Fabian Society organised the event (now fully booked). Katwala had a problem with the two wannaby leaders of the left when they couldn’t decide which of them should raise the stop-Gordon banner. Brown had agreed to the debate but they couldn’t make up their minds whether to accept the challenge! Finally Meacher relented and gave up his Sunday evening for the cause. Will his generosity allow the so-far unasked question to be put to Brown in the debate, 'What about PR?' Oscar Reyes of Red Pepper interviewed Meacher and McDonnell and put the question to each of them - you can read the full interviews in this month’s edition, which the Pepperites should instantly post on-line, for the two answers were a joy. Here is Meacher’s, “I am not at this stage in favour of electoral reform, but pluralism is important”. (At this stage! How about that for a radical challenge? Decoded it means, personally I agree with PR but my died-in-the-wool supporters won’t let me say so.) And here is McDonnell’s, “I’m a complete pragmatist – I support the electoral system that gets Labour to power, because that enables me then to achieve what I think would be a socialist advance.” If you are a complete pragmatist why stop at stealing elections for the cause of socialism… why not chat up the army and try a pragmatic coup d’état? After all, the Chiefs of Staff are against the Iraq war. With the ‘left’ opposing democratic voting its enough to make one nostalgic for New Labour already. I hope to be reporting from the meeting.