What are Hoon and Hewitt hoping to achieve?

The secret ballot story is still ongoing – so it’s a little early to be drawing conclusions just yet.  But, for now, it’s worth thinking about what H&H are hoping to achieve by all this.  If it’s true that they haven’t discussed their plans with Cabinet ministers, then why are they sticking their heads above the parapet?  It’s not as though they’re the most widely popular members of the Labour backbenches, who could manage to influence huge swathes of the PLP.  Without a mass of pre-existing support, they surely can’t have much hope of getting the ballot they’ve called for.

Which just throws up more questions.  Should we simply take their statements at face value – that they’re just putting this idea out there, by themselves, for the good of the party?  Or have they got a Cabinet minister in their armoury?  Or is more of the PLP behind H&H than it appears at the moment?  CoffeeHousers, your thoughts please.