The first Brown to sack Mandelson rumour

Mark

I see that Ben Brogan thinks that Balls is in line to succeed Darling.

What a brilliant idea! And let's have Mrs Balls at the Home Office.

Tory majority in 2010 if that happens: somewhere north of 150.

TrevorsDen

I don't see any rumour about Mandelson here.

Balls is presumably the beneficiary. But Balls is as big a player in our "neo-classical endogenous growth theory" financial mess as Brown. How high is his standing in the PLP?
Bring him on.

Darling has the advantage of being a suitable doormat for Brown to trample on.

The other point to bear in mind is that in searching for someone to blame Brown will in inevitably be drawn to The Treasury. Watch out for him splitting it in two - we are now in case you had not heard from Brown himself - in the 21st Century - and we cannot expect to get by with anything so old fashioned as a 'Treasury'.
Such a move also has the benefit of creating more highly paid civil servant jobs and keep them in line for another 12 months.

mac

As Guido puts it, 'ferrets in a sack'.

oldrightie

Ferrets in a sack!

Brucie Bonus

What a load of bull and you know it is.

Sunder Katwala

Is it a rumour? Is it even a meta-rumour? It sounds like pointless speculation about what might at some future point be pointless speculated about.

'I know it would be absurd, but I fear that in a few months somebody might even start whispering about Peter Mandelson's position', somebody appeared to be thinking, thought the lobby correspondent.

Cue page-lead ...

Westminster was in turmoil last night as not even aides to junior backbenchers were prepared to comment on background terms about the future possibility of internal divisions, reshuffle and leadership speculation. Sources close to the political lobby said this silence was being taken by insiders as among the clearest signs yet that something very important was afoot.

Iain

cui bono = Ed Balls

Hawkeye

It would be signing Brown's death warrant to move Mandy. The press would savage him for showing such appalling judgement by bringing Mandy onboard in the first place.

The title of "ditherer" would be gracing Brown's picture on every newspaper and tory campaign poster.

Brown is stuck with Mandy unless Mandy does something spectacularly daft first.

Jon

"The cui bono on this story seems pretty obvious." ???

It's not obvious to me.

Faceless Bureaucrat

Shurely shome mishtake...

Rather more a case of Mandelson 'sacking' Brown (well, suggesting he 'retire' on the grounds of 'ill health') after the wipe-out in the Local and Euro Elections - especially if Brown's unpopularity gives the BNP a boost in either.

mitch

Something else for Brown to bottle.

Frank P

What's the second Brown going to do?

Kevyn Bodman

No, the cui bono is not pretty obvious.
Brown doesn't benefit, Mandelson doesn't benefit; so I guess one of Mandelson's rivals must benefit by an attempt to destabilise Mandelson.
But I don't know who Mandelson's rivals are.

So, don't drop hints about it being pretty obvious who benefits. Tell us who you think benefits from putting this rumour out.

Trumpeter Lanfried

The Mail cites 'Friends of the Prime Minister' as saying there is 'a case for moving' Smith and Darling.

I take it 'Friends of the Prime Minister' means Mandleson; or possibly one of the caterpillars at No.10 employed at taxpayers' expense to undermine cabinet government.

The two lined up for the chop are said to have been insufficiently supportive of government policies. In other words Darling has dug his heels in once or twice and Smith has looked bored during PMQs.

strapworld

Take this with the New statesman nonsense about a Lib Lab Pact and this takes on a different hue!

IF the Pact came after those election, when both Labour and Lib Dems did poorly, it may benefit both to join a pact to keep Brown in power to 2010 AND BEYOND! (Let us not forget the emergency powers they no have!)

So, to make room for his new friends, he will have to sack some. Add to this list above the youth in charge of Foreign Affairs and it then becomes quite a decent story.

Especially if Brown realises that Mandleson is, most definately, after his job!

Nicholas

Gosh, do we really have to wait until June for something to happen to this rotten "government"? The closer we get to election due the further away it seems to be. Enduring New Labour's drawn out death throes is like a weird combination of watching paint dry and the carnival ghost tunnel where unexpected horrors pop up to frighten you but in reality are just a tacky sham. What insanity will be dreamt up next by the barmy Gordon, nutty Harriet, luny Jacqui or bonkers Jack?

D

Mandelson is telling Balls to stop bothering Gordon about sacking that nice Mr Darling. If Balls was a good friend, like Mandy is, he wouldn't bother Gordon and make Gordon sad. Mr Balls isn't a good friend and that's why he's not going to be Chancellor, ever. So he really should shut it.

Clive B

Slightly off topic but did anyone else notice the shift in Brown's logic when asked about his assertions on the subject of Britain being best placed to weather the recession?. I only caught a bit of his interview in Davos, but heard him answer "we are better placed than at other times.... low interest rates etc etc". In other words he is, in typical Brown fashion, shifting the debate away from Britain vs other countries' performance to Labour vs Tory recessions, just like he did with the "no more [Tory]boom and bust". If i'm right, he's going to be repeating the line over and over again in the next few weeks.

Ivy Eileen

Clive B - it's not "logic".... that requires a degree of rationality. It's his self-serving, slimy, weedling thought process.