Chuka fell at the first fence.

I felt very sad that Chuka fell at the first fence. He has decided not to stand for the Labour leadership. The reason apparently too much media intrusion into his private life and especially that of his mother and girlfriend. He might have anticipated this from the start, but unless you have experienced a media fire storm I guess it difficult to imagine. The party will be poorer for his decision. It reminds me of the time Bill Clinton (remember him) was asked whether when he was at Oxford University studying if he had taken and dope? He said that he had "but hadn't inhaled". Do we want politicians that are so pure and saintly they are not part of the general population? We complain that they are all the same and lacking any depth or colour. The social media is killing off any real politicians. This is a terrible indictment of our hypocritical society. We are left with a rather lacklustre group running for the leadership. I do fear for the life of the party, it has such a very long road back to power. The electorate has turned in back on their view of the world. We are not a rabidly left wing country. This may have been true in 1945 but not any longer? The power is in the centre ground and call me Dave has his tanks firmly packed there and they are not moving any time soon.
Who would want to be leader of the Labour Party anyway? Its a ragbag of discontented party hacks, who generally have not done a proper days work in their collective bargaining lives?