Carter got

Asa

They are getting desperate....

*sigh* And what good is this to our nation? They seem all concerned about the good of the party, not the people!

Walpole would not approve methinks....

David

"Carter’s slide down the Downing Street pecking order suggests that he has lost both these arguments and that we will soon see full-on personal attacks launched on both Miliband and Cameron."

Looking forward to these attacks. The Labour party will then split in-half and the disaster for them in C&N will repeat itself on a national scale.

Austin Barry

The Labour Party's dance of death continues. Now a curious gavotte, the coming bifurcated butchery of attacks on Cameron and Miliband. What kind of mad, last-ditch tactic is this: where a synchronised attack on the Leader of the Opposition and their own Foreign Secretary seems sensible? Brown, cheated of charisma by dissembling nature, hated by the public and the dogs in the street resembles now more than ever Richard III: "Plots I have laid, inductious, dangerous, subtle, false and treacherous." But Darling, liberated by the bracing air of the Western Highlands and possibly copious amounts of malt has spiked McBrown's guns, and Brown finds himself undermined by a previously wee sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie resembling a hamster with distemper: Alistair Darling, a strange Nemesis indeed....

John Ward

They have been desperate for a long time now, and this is just the next stage of ratcheting up their self-preservation activities.

When it came down to it, everything the Labour Government has done (apart from those it couldn't avoid, e.g. from the EU) has been to keep itself in power.

Under Blair the rot was largely hidden beneath a (very thin) veneer, but Brown does not have the ability to maintain the illusion -- which is probably the biggest reason why so many people in Britain now realise the truth.

Yes, they are and always have been exclusively self-serving, and now the cat is out of the bag the polls, election results, and everything else shows them that their cushy jobs are at risk.

They have effectively backed themselves into a corner and are now in real panic.

The Wordsmith

For an august and renowned publication, I am afraid that both your grammar and punctuation leave a considerable amount to be desired.I found this item difficult to read and get the meaning first time.

This might have been better:
"The Independent on Sunday’s report that Stephen Carter has been demoted is hugely significant. If it is right (and I have no reason to think it is not: I have yet independently to confirm it), it suggests that a change in strategy is coming and that the Brownites are going to adopt a more bare-knuckle approach.
In recent weeks, Carter has been an advocate of two things.
Firstly, of not trying to tear David Miliband down, to which end he played a key role in the brokering of the Peace of Minorca.
Secondly, of trying to separate David Cameron from his party. Carter argues that the public believe Cameron to be a decent, moderate guy and thus attempting to demonise him will not work and, therefore, that the best strategy is to say to voters: “OK, Cameron is alright but what about the rest of them?
Carter’s slide down the Downing Street pecking order suggests that he has lost both these arguments and that we will soon see full-on personal attacks launched on both Miliband and Cameron."

You have been visited by A Grammar Vigilante.

Barman at The Red Lion, Whitehall SW1

"Trebles all round, Mr. McBride?..."