Clive Lewis is not the answer, to anything

This will be an extremely short post.

Clive Lewis has resigned from the shadow cabinet, over Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s vote on Article 50. Did Labour vote for or against triggering Article 50? Don’t know. Too difficult to follow. Extremely boring.

Lewis is said to be positioning himself for a run for the leadership of the Labour party, which used to be a thing. It may well be a thing again, sooner than some expect if the economy dips or May stumbles and Corbyn can be replaced, but not now and not under Clive Lewis.

Clive Lewis is not the answer to the Labour party’s problems. Labour needs half of its membership to go away, the far-left half, and for an as yet unknown, charismatic, moderate, sensible person to emerge who can win in England. Or for a surprising biggish beast of yesteryear to say “right, that’s enough, make way, there needs to be an opposition party.” In Germany, Eurofanatic Martin Schulz has shown it can be done. His apparently no-hoper campaign leading the SPD into this autumn’s elections has turned in a few weeks into a credible threat to Angela Merkel. That’s what Labour needs. Not Clive Lewis.

Sorry to be rude, but in order to save Labour five wasted years chasing a delusion we should be blunt. Clive Lewis is not the answer to anything. He simply isn’t. He may be a nice man. He may have been in the army ( he has). But no amount of counter-intuitive commentary saying that he has something and could be the man is going to alter the reality that he ain’t it. The magic is not there.

That is all.