After Gordon

Anyone with two working eyes can see that Labour ministers are positioning themselves for the inevitable departure of Gordon, whether he goes willingly or unwillingly. The two alternative approaches seem to be "I was always loyal" and "I saw His faults and refused to have anything to do with Him".

The problem with the latter, of course, is that despite being within the Cabinet, these Ministers apparently only noticed Gordon's faults after the electorate pointed them out in a seemingly endless flow of consistent opinion polls, following by the local election results on Friday. When Labour has already fallen behind the Monster Raving Loony Party, some would say that it is a little late to start wondering if all is well. (HT: Obo) So I think we can discount them.

Which leaves the first group. Here, I think that the ideal contender for the next Labour leader will have shown qualities such as:

• putting personal friendships aside in the name of loyalty
• showing an excellent track record in presentation (Labour are about presentation, not policy)
• not having been associated with Gordon's economic policies
• maintaining an ongoing and visible media presence during recent weeks
• being perceived to have had a positive effect on the party's message despite Gordon's failings

and, most importantly, so that there will be seen to be a fresh start after the nightmare of the last two years:

• always having actually been quite critical of Gordon, actually

I think I can see (only) one candidate doing this extremely well. So well, in fact, that he's reached a de facto No: 2 spot already. His peerage is a problem, of course, but not one that hasn't been solved before.

The Conservatives gave us the first woman PM - will Labour try to give us the first gay PM?