Well, with all the attention focussed on the various leadership contenders and what they do, the contest for the deputy leadership as gone unnoticed. Its just as important a job as it is the leaderships connection to the party and can be an influential position with influence over the direction the party should take. The contenders at teh moment are Peter Hain, Harriet Harmen and Jon Cruddas (all pretty much declared) with Jack Straw also expected to run. It must also be conceivable that David Milliband and Hillary Benn will run. It will be an interesting election largely because the position is not one chosen by the party leader, so potentially you could end up with a leader and deputy with rather different opinions.
The candidates running this time vary from the declared Brown supporters (Harman, Hain and Straw), the potential Blairite runners (there will be one in there somewhere) to the rather maverick Cruddas who is already speaking out against the Iraq war and the foreign policy of the government and is also a more 'old' Labour leaning candidate.
So who will get in? Personally I would like to see Milliband get it were he to run, if not then Harman or Straw. If (god forbid!)Brown wins the leadership it will need to be someone with a bit of personality to back him up. Of course, the party leader does not have to make his deputy the deputy prime minister, he does not have to put him in the cabinet at all, but that would be an unwise move when the deputy is also chosen by the membership.
Either way, whoever gets in, it will be an interesting sideshow to the main leadership battle, at the rate it is going, it will be a more interesting one as well!
It's a funny one, the deputy leadership. It's a bit of a non-position in many respects. Declaring for the deputy leadership, rather than the leadership is a bit like saying "I know I'm not good enough to do the top job, but..."
It was interesting that when John Smith died, Prescott and Beckett stood for both leader and deputy leader and Blair stood only for the leader's post. He tied his colours to the mast, saying he wanted the top job or nothing. Also, the Deputy Leader's post is not a springboard - if the leader does badly, the deputy is also culpable. It's unlike being Vice President in the US where it's a bit of a shoe-in for the top job.
I think Milliband and Benn would be mad to go for it. Better to leave it to Hain. Harmann is, quite frankly, second rate and shouldn't be anywhere near the cabinet. Straw would be a very bad idea, his time has been and gone. I'd like to see the Deputy Leader be given one of the great offices of state - that would sort the men from the boys....