Erimus

If Ed Miliband will let us.

Sir Stuart Bell was a bit pro-EU, although perhaps less so in recent years than in the past. But he was a figure of Keynesian, social democratic Labour without a trace either of classical Marxism or of what was once the New Left, socially conservative (he was solidly pro-life and a staunch defender of traditional marriage), and relentless in the pursuit of constituency and other good causes, in his case most obviously justice for the victims of the Cleveland child abuse scandal.

As such, he was one of the carefully selected figures of the Old Labour Right organised and licensed by the Whips to vote against the ridiculous Lords Reform Bill in order to indicate, along with the equally organised and equally licensed opposition of equally carefully selected Blairites and left-wingers, Labour's true attitude to a Bill on which it nevertheless officially abstained in order to watch the Coalition and its constituent parts tear themselves to pieces over. There was therefore never any realistic chance that it would ever reach the Statute Book, and it has duly been withdrawn.

Labour would easily have held the seat even in different circumstances, never mind in those which currently obtain. So, who is to be the candidate, and thus the next MP? Will it be a figure of Keynesian, social democratic Labour without a trace either of classical Marxism or of what was once the New Left, socially conservative (including solidly pro-life and a staunch defender of traditional marriage), relentless in the pursuit of constituency and other good causes, either never happy with the EU or at least a lot less so now than in the past, and more than willing to help derail the further vandalism of the Constitution?

Ed Miliband, over to you.