Labour leadership - Meek inherit very little

This week, as we mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day, it is hard to imagine that any of the four deputies who have offered themselves to the membership of the Labour party as prospective deputy leaders epitomise the qualities of leadership and courage that prevailed on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944.

Rather than seek the party’s leadership the quartet want to play a waiting game, standing in the shadow of either Joan Burton or Alex White, expecting another leadership contest after the next election. This may be entirely pragmatic but it hardly builds the kind of confidence needed to rejuvenate a party outflanked by Sinn Féin and unable to offer sweeteners to a disenchanted electorate. They may, in the fullness of time, discover that the meek inherit very little indeed.