Cranmer's Labour Dream Team

Cranmer has blogged about what he believes would be an election winning team for Labour.

I'm not as convinced as Cranmer is that it would secure Labour an "easy" fourth term win. I doubt very much whether it would even produce a hard-fought victory.

But nonetheless, it is a hell of a lot better than Labour's current government line-up even though it still has many duds in the list (e.g. Byers, Bradshaw, Blears, Davies, Woodward and Bryant).

See for yourself from the list below:

Cranmer's winning team:

• Prime Minister - Alan Johnson
• Chancellor of the Exchequer - Frank Field
• Home Secretary – John Denham
• Foreign Secretary (and Europe Minister) - Gisela Stuart
• Health Secretary – Stephen Byers
• Education Secretary – Alan Milburn
• Justice Secretary – Ben Bradshaw
• Business Secretary – James Purnell
• Environment Secretary – Hazel Blears
• International Development Secretary – Hilary Benn
• Defence Secretary – Quentin Davies
• Communities Secretary – John Cruddas
• Transport Secretary – Shaun Woodward
• Culture Secretary – Glenda Jackson
• Olympics Minister – Kate Hoey
• Leader of the House of Commons – Chris Bryant
• Party Chairman – (out of sight but highly effective) Peter Mandelson

Cranmer goes on to argue that as part of his election-winning strategy for Labour, the following people should be kept away from the media as voters dislike and/or distrust them: Gordon Brown, Alastair Darling, Harriet Harman, Patricia Hewitt, Dawn Primorolo, Keith Vaz, Ed Balls, Ed and David Miliband, Goeff Hoon, Jacqui Smith, and sundry lords (but especially Ahmed).

Pure fantasy all this of course. It's never going to happen but its a bit of fun nevertheless.

To my mind the Tories would still triumph at the next general election but the contest would be much closer if Cameron had to face Cranmer's Labour team rather than Brown's, and the Tories certainly wouldn't be 20 points ahead in the polls!

A general election defeat might be a good thing for Labour - it is in desperate need of clearing out the dead wood that litters the government benches.