You're doing a lot of lolling about these days.
In a way Labour are in the same situation as the Tories in that there is no other candidate for leader who really stands out at present. At the last leadership election there was no credible alternative and having any of the losers then stand again will not give voters any more confidence in Labour. There is a potential leader who would get good public support, but he is not an MP and doesn't seem too keen to return.
In any election many voters will often vote against a party to stop them gaining power, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that tactic, except for those too pure of principle, or too intransigent, to compromise. Cutting off their nose to spite their face comes to mind. I doubt that any Labour leader who was serious about getting their party into power again would be too worried about potential votes from outliers on the right or the left.
To think of real change coming through the unions is pie in the sky stuff, fuelled by the current strong performance of the RMT. Union membership, despite a very small rise in recent years, is half what it was in the 1970s and less than a third of employees are now union members. This fall in membership is a great pity as it does lead to greater pay inequality, but it is a fact of life and weakens the ability of unions to effect change other than pay and conditions of their members.
