Harriet Harman has been elected the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, just pipping Alan Johnson to the post, and has been appointed party chairman [presumably she'd prefer "chairwoman" - or maybe even the non gender-specific term "chairperson"] by Gordon Brown. Presumably he had decisions on posts for all of the contenders, had they been the one to win. However, appointing the deputy leader party chairman is a good idea, as it again marks a difference between Blair's premiership and his own, when Prescott, as deputy leader, was Deputy Prime Minister as well.

Presumably Harman's new job will be to try and prevent Labour's decimation at the next general election and to prevent the hemorrhaging of Labour Party members. Will she do this? I doubt it, personally. A person who fought the election on the basic principle that she should be elected because she was a woman [and all the others, bar Blairite Hazel, weren't], is unlikely to be able to vote for the dour Scot.

That Harriet Harman won is quite a surprise to me, as I hadn't really considered her that serious a candidate. What was also a mild surprise, and quite a damning indictment of Blair's decade as PM, was the Hazel Blears was the first to be eliminated. It shows that the Labour Party has no attachment to Blairism, and little more attachment even to Tony Blair himself, anymore. Why anyone voted for Harriet Harman, I have no idea. I thought that Hazel Blears was a far mor interesting, and better, candidate!

Source: BBC, The Times, The Telegraph