The Blairites have moved, now the left must
James Forsyth 7:57pm
Siobhain McDonagh has become the first person to quit their payroll job in an attempt to force a leadership contest. If others are brave enough to follow her example, then the game really will be afoot.
The Progress article by a dozen Blairite MPs which is scathingly critical of where and how Labour is being led is also a clear statement of intent. What should worry the Brownites about it though, is that some names are noticeable by their absence; suggesting that there might be a plan for a programme of rolling criticism of Brown in the run up to conference.
But as long as the campaign to force Brown out can be depicted as some kind of Blairite conspiracy then Brown is relatively safe. If the left—and I mean the mainstream left—were to join in by offering their own critique of the Prime Minister, then Brown would be in big trouble.
An understanding between the left and the Blairites might seem unlikely given that they have radically different visions for Labour. But both sides do have an interest in Labour not going down to a massive defeat. I was also struck how people on both sides of this divide have noted to me recently that they more in common policy-wise than most people think.
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glenlivet guy
September 12th, 2008 8:38pm Report this commentBBC just reporting that Brown told a porkie at yesterday news conference when he said" All pensioner households would be entitled to free or grant assisted insulation and cavity wall filling"
It now transpires that this is limited to Pensioner Households where the pensioner is over 70 and on limited income. You think he would have learnt that the media would, thank goodness read the fine print. Reminds me of his boast that with VED it would apply to so few with older cars, then the media reveals the truth.
Austin Barry
September 12th, 2008 8:47pm Report this commentEarly days, but perhaps for Brown the initial fearful scrotal contraction that heralds the beginning of the end...
Donna
September 12th, 2008 9:36pm Report this commentWe are sick and tired of these interminable squabbles and of Blair's lingering spectre which nobody seems to be able to exorcise.
TrevorsDen
September 12th, 2008 11:26pm Report this commentI have just seen Dolly Draper on Newsnight and the only conclusion I can come to is that he has had a pre frontal lobotomy.
He looked eerily like David Brent in his mannerisms and a Big Issue seller in his dress.
Is "Brown tells porkie" news anymore??
ChrisD
September 13th, 2008 1:04am Report this commentI don't understand your reasoning that Brown is safe if this is depicted as a Blairite plot and the mainstream left don't join in the criticism of him?
I think that this move to try and push Cabinet Ministers into action is very dangerous, and not just for Brown, but also for the future ambitions of some of those cabinet ministers with might have designs to lead the Labour party once he has gone.
Its looks like the political lobby have been caught napping, this apparent plot has come from nowhere, and does not seem to have registered on their radar.
Even now, they don't seem to have a handle on either, how widespread, or how organised this plot is.
It might be a ripple that fizzles out, or it might grow into a political tidal wave. But by its very unpredictability it means that the focus is back squarely on the state of Brown's premiership.
In the Conservative party back under IDS, the anonymous nature of those letters to the 1922 committee did not lessen the damage inflicted.
Blair is gone, and being a former Blairite does not make the despair or concern felt about the present state and direction of the party any easier to stomach. This is MP's worried about their seats and their party if the present polls continue to indicate a crushing defeat at the next GE.
They are not Blairites anymore, they are MP's trying to stem the tide of defeat.
Keith
September 13th, 2008 8:04am Report this commentWhat a sad reflection on today's Prime Minister it is that when he speaks everyone looks for the carefully hidden lie.
Chuck Unsworth
September 13th, 2008 8:15am Report this commentBrown's supporters need to understand that those 'Blairites' are in touch with the sentiments of most people - at least in respect of the public's desire to remove Brown.
Then again, Brown's supporters are in total paranoid denial - to the extent of labelling any criticism of Der Fuhrer as some sort of 'Blairite Plot'.
oldtimer
September 13th, 2008 9:43am Report this commentEven if the Blairite and left wing of the Labour party are, as you imply, close on policy it will look like a split in the party to the rest of us.
Brown, and Labour, look as if they will be impaled either on the fork of a damaging split with Brown surviving the challenge - or the other fork of a damaging split where he is deposed amid much acrimony.
I suppose it could all end in sweetness and light, with no one injured, but somehow I don`t think so.
JimBob
September 13th, 2008 1:55pm Report this commentSurely its time for Brown to do the honourable thing and step down?
David Lindsay
September 13th, 2008 4:24pm Report this commentAhm Patricia Hewitt's yawning chasm!
Seriously, though, is this a spoof?
Alas not.
"Bold new narrative", "the left of centre", blah, blah, blah from the unrepentant old Communists, Trotskyists and fellow-travellers, long moved on from economics to the culture wars. It's like Tony never died.
And the other lot are no better. They don't even differ in terms of personnel, never mind ideology. Baroness Hewitt for Cameron's Health Secretary or Lord Chancellor? Why not?
Anglica
September 13th, 2008 11:05pm Report this commentJimBob: Honour? Gordo?
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