Labour's purge

Mat McCarten has written a pretty good column on what Labour wants to do to return to power in 2008, ie: get rid of non performing list MPs who lost their seats at the last election, such as Dianne Yates, Jill Pettis and Ann Hartley. Dover Samuels and Russell Fairbrother are history too.

Some should be demoted off the Cabinet, such as David Benson Pope (even though he is an electorate MP) , Rick Barker and David Parker. Add Shane Jones and Tim Barnett at the very least. I`d also add Michael Cullen to the demotion list but leave him in Cabinet. He entered Parliament in 1981, the same day as Helen Clark, but lost his seat in 1999. If Labour wants to win the election next year, they should really have a new deputy leader, its just that they don't know who to replace him with.

Shane Jones should come the closest. If National can have two electorate MPs at the top and be successful, so can Labour. The question is, will Labour have the balls to do it, and if so, would they be as successful and win the election next year?