A poll to undermine Brown's authority
James Forsyth 12:29pm
Today’s Guardian poll suggesting Labour would do better with someone other than Gordon at the helm is another blow to Brown. Realistically I can’t see Brown being replaced as Labour leader before the next election, there’s no stomach for the bloody struggle that it would take to prise Brown out of Downing Street and it is not obvious that anyone would actually improve Labour’s fortunes once installed in the job. But the idea that Brown is dragging down Labour’s numbers being splashed across the front page of The Guardian reduces Brown’s authority. It is harder for him to tell the Cabinet and the party that they have to listen to him on issues like the Post Office when he is seen as being part of the problem not the solution for Labour.
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Benny S
February 24th, 2009 12:48pm Report this commentNo one volunteers to be the captain of a sinking ship. They need a selfless saviour to step in and sacrifice their own political aspirations for the good of the party. I can't see that happening.
richardj
February 24th, 2009 12:48pm Report this commentAt last someone can see the main problem. But who will deal with it?
Prodicus
February 24th, 2009 1:03pm Report this commentIt's all down to Harriet's fifth column - the Graun's Wimmin's page.
TrevorsDen
February 24th, 2009 1:07pm Report this commentRoyal mail?
its amazing init?
Brown buggers up the nations pensions and the threat being used to force through privatisation?
The pension fund is buggered!
Just how thick are Labour MPs?
I guess we will soon see.
Austin Barry
February 24th, 2009 1:10pm Report this commentBrown has come to resemble Rodin's statue of Balzac: lumpen, gloomy and forbidding. As Balzac wrote, 'Finance, like time, devours its children.'
John Goulding
February 24th, 2009 1:15pm Report this commentHe needs to go and go soon. How can anyone in this country have any confidence in a leader that once claimed he had put an end to boom and bust, yet on his watch we have had the worst financial crisis i have experienced in my lifetime.
And just when we hoped he would say something sensible he comes out with "British jobs for British workers", now i am no expert on EU law but it seems to me this would be illegal under EU law. As it was New Labour that gave away most of our sovereignty to Brussels in the first place you would have hoped he would realise this.
As someone that watches so many political programmes and Prime Ministers Question Time, it amazes me the constant failure of New Labour Ministers to answer a simple straight forward question.
Maybe i have things a bit wrong but this is how it all appears to me.
oldrightie
February 24th, 2009 1:16pm Report this commentThey'll just lumber on scorching and destroying the place. Bet they already have the anti-Tory Government spin in place.
Verity
February 24th, 2009 1:17pm Report this commentRichardj asks who will deal with it? Who cares?
I see in today's paper that now, one in nine people in the UK was born abroad. This is all since this vile, destructive, malice-filled socialist pigswill took office.
Shaun Austin
February 24th, 2009 1:29pm Report this commentSeriously, all of the debate over who is best to lead this walking corpse of a government is irrelevant.
We do NOT need a Labour Party Leadership election, we need a GENERAL election!
Tiberius
February 24th, 2009 1:37pm Report this commentIs this the nearest the Guardian will get to "for God's sake go"?
Aidan
February 24th, 2009 1:42pm Report this commentrichardj - Brown is not the main problem. Replacing him with another Labour apparatchik will not change anything. The problems for the country arise from twelve years of naive policies and lies.
C Powell
February 24th, 2009 1:43pm Report this commentTo have your authority undermined you need to have some authority in the first place and Brown hasn't had that in a while. Anyway, it doesn't matter which particular Labour numpty they have in charge. We want rid of the lot of them and the sooner the better.
Alex
February 24th, 2009 1:59pm Report this commentHow many times do the press need to regurgitate this story?
It got boring months ago.
wonderfulforhisage
February 24th, 2009 2:00pm Report this commentWell, there's a nice little earner by way of a PM's pension at the end of the tunnel. Maybe it's not significantly greater than a senior ministers pension to make it worth anybody's while.
HFC
February 24th, 2009 6:02pm Report this commentPension payable to Prime Minister (See 1994 Act)
4. The Prime Minister's pension under this Act shall be payable in accordance with the following formula -
(a) where a Prime Minister has held office for not more than two years, 20 percent of salary payable upon retirement;
(b) where he has held office for more than two years-
(i) 20 percent of salary payable in respect of the first two years;
(ii) thereafter, an additional 10 percent for each succeeding year for three years; and
(iii) where he has held that office for more than five years, for each completed year of service after the first five years, an additional 5 percent of salary up to a maximum of 75 percent of salary.
So, even if Brown fails to hang on and serve two years he will get a pension of 20% of his calary, index linked, of course.
And we can see why Blair wanted to do the full 10 years - to get the max. 75% deal.
mitch
February 24th, 2009 6:07pm Report this commentIt would be fun to watch brown having his fingers prised off the levers of power.
AndyM
February 25th, 2009 6:09pm Report this commentI find it amazing that we allow an unelected Prime Minister and the Government that he appointed spend hundreds of Billions of borrowed money without recourse to parliament or the electorate at large.
What kind of democracy is this that we live in?
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