SuperMac

I don't necessarily agree with John McDonnell about (among much else) Heathrow. I am open to persuasion, but I'd rather side with the unions than with the luvvies on something like this. And the unions are right behind the Government's decision.

However, there is no denying that McDonnell is impressive in many ways. He kept his super-marginal Outer London seat when most of them went back to the Tories last time, and there is every expectation that he would survive a Labour defeat. Had he been able to stand for Labour Leader, then he would have taken forty-five per cent of the constituency members' vote and more than half of the unions', although Brown would still have won.

"Hard Left"? Compared to whom? He was where New Labour were twenty-five years ago. (The same New Labour that really did surrender to the IRA, in case anyone brings that up.) Like them, he isn't now. But unlike them, he still believes in social justice and in peace.