The ShortList – January 10th

From @LabourList

Before Wednesday, the week was shaping up fairly normally. Our PPC Profile was of Bristol’s Paul Smith. Since then, one story has dominated the news: the Hoon-Hewitt letter attempting to force a secret ballot on Gordon Brown’s leadership…

Hoon-Hewitt gate
As the news came in, LabourList was aggregating Labour supporters’ thoughts, from Twitter to the cabinet.

Labour backbenchers rounded on the plotters – and sent instant and angry email responses.

And while some former Brown doubters had coalesced around the PM, it was only the usual suspects who approved of a ballot.

Paul Richards called his old boss’s actions a “very rubbish coup”.

And John Gray has some secret behind-the-scenes footage of Patricia Hewitt on the day Gordon Brown took office…

Could any positives come from the week’s catastrophic news? Gabe Trodd has 3 lessons.

Other News
David Cameron had a quiet meeting with an NHS privatiser just before Christmas: Tom Harris has some serious questions…

It’s all over the country, but David Cameron’s NHS poster is not good PR, writes former Total Politics editor Sarah MacKinlay.

Islam4UK should not be allowed to protest at Wootton Bassett, said Julian Ware-Lane.

Party, People and Policy
How should Gordon Brown try to win the election?

The hardest thing to take from the plot was that it shone light on New Labour’s real failures, writes David Carrington.

Opinion
Blogs are great, but online commnunications on the UK are still a disappointment, writes Anthony Painter.

LabourList launches its first merchandise: the change we choose t-shirts.

Previous editions of the ShortList
The Copenhagen climate summit – December 20th, 2009.

The PBR – December 16th, 2009

Brown comes out fighting – December 6th, 2009.

The Chilcot Inquiry – November 29th, 2009.

The Queen’s Speech – November 22nd, 2009.

Glasgow North East by-election – November 14th, 2009

Blair and Miliband to Europe? – November 8th, 2009.

Europe and the Primary debate – November 1st, 2009

Griffin on Question Time – October 25th, 2009

Tory numbers – October 17th, 2009

Conseravtive conference – October 10, 2009.

Labour conference – October 3rd, 2009.

A Britain where everyone has a stake and a say – September 5th, 2009.

Teddy Kennedy: a good and decent man – August 29th, 2009.

Election strategy – August 22nd, 2009.

We Love the NHS – August 15th, 2009.

Green shoots are not enough – August 8th, 2009.

Debating ConservativeHome – August 1st, 2009.

Cruddas and Purnell – July 23rd, 2009.

The Ken Livingstone interview – July 18th, 2009.