The plot's gunpowder is extinguished
James Forsyth 1:17pm
The atmosphere is flat in Westminster today. The plot finally fizzled out this morning but not before having highlighted how little support in the Cabinet Brown has. It was telling that it was Shaun Woodward, not anyone more high profile, who turned up on the Today Programme to defend the PM.
Plots that wound but do not kill Brown are perfect for the Tories. They make the voters see Labour as divided and add to the mood that it is time for a change. This one also had the benefit of being ideally timed from a Tory perspective, obscuring a week which had seen Cameron make a rare blunder.
YouGov’s latest poll does show the Tories on course for a majority, no small achievement considering the base they are starting from. But the lead isn’t enough to make any one on the Tory side complacent. If a new Labour leader had had any kind of bounce, Tory jitters about a hung parliament would have become more pronounced.
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Vulture
January 7th, 2010 1:53pm Report this commentBrilliant pic of Von Braun in the bunker, James!
Danko
January 7th, 2010 2:13pm Report this commentVulture - You can almost hear it, can't you "Steiner will attack, Steiner will wipe them off the face of the earth".
How long before Brown's Lieutenants break the news? There will be no attack because the party lacks the manpower and resources to do so.
Edward Palmer
January 7th, 2010 2:19pm Report this commentI wonder what Soon* & Hewitt were offered by Team Cameron to produce this damp squib of a plot? Perhaps they are just as stupid as it seems and gifted the Tories this ideal result, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them receiving plum jobs from Cameron in a few months.
* My spell-checker suggests: Goon or Loon instead!
Naomi Muse
January 7th, 2010 2:22pm Report this commentWholeheartedly concur, James.
See my post of 11.07 today on the 'what now for Brown' blog.
It's a waiting game for the erosion to get past the tipping point.
Percy
January 7th, 2010 2:37pm Report this commentIs he wearing his old Etonian tie again?
Marcher Baron
January 7th, 2010 2:41pm Report this commentIt's typical of Labour that they can't even organise a plot effectively. They are serial incompetents.
Rex Burr
January 7th, 2010 3:01pm Report this commentHow could any such plot succeed without a viable alternative leader in the wings?
charles hercock
January 7th, 2010 3:16pm Report this commentThis is all good news but Dave must twist the knife.We will win.
Rex Burr
January 7th, 2010 3:18pm Report this commentHow could any such plot succeed without a viable alternative leader in the wings?
Major Plonquer
January 7th, 2010 3:28pm Report this commentThis day's action is what is known in Scotland as a 'Broon Coo'.
Number7
January 7th, 2010 3:40pm Report this comment@ Edward Palmer.
My A.I.( mine's a Kray ) spellchecker suggested Buff and Screwitt.
Gawain
January 7th, 2010 4:14pm Report this commentPercy, I think it's the Brown Trousered Regimental tie.
London Calling
January 7th, 2010 4:24pm Report this commentHoon The Baboon and Hewitt The Chew it…
Not so much a storm in Tea Cup, more of a Fly in your Soup. Hoon mistakenly thought that backroom grumbling constituted courage to put action where your mouth is, unfortunately it was too little too late and he was left rather red faced on his go it alone campaign, even if behind the scenes it was what many Labour MP’S desired.
What did we learn today?…Shut up and put up, Flies are actually quite nutritious to eat…
Holly ......
January 7th, 2010 4:26pm Report this commentCameron could waste his time addressing all
this Labour stuff.
Cameron is being branded as weak,because he isn't.
He is playing a brilliant game by addressing the public.
By-passing all the negative journalists and they hate it.Hence all the negativity.
The public do not care what the media say any more. They make their minds up all on their own.
Yesterdays Labour shenanigans only validated the public's impression of the whole Labour party from top to bottom.
Anyone with children aged between eight to twenty understands exactly what went off within the government and they will turn off.
Whatever the reason behind it,Cameron is quite right to ignore the lot of them and get on with fighting the election.
Labour are welcome to fight each other,real
or staged.
Was it a Brown sympathy tactic?
If so it failed.
Looks like health reasons.
Tariq
January 7th, 2010 6:29pm Report this commentPerhaps this wasn't a plot to oust Brown in the first place, but rather an attempt to publicly highlight how little support the PM enjoys in cabinet. In which case it appears to have succeeded.
Robert Williams
January 7th, 2010 11:32pm Report this commentThe photo above is of a visit made by Brown yesterday afternoon, it was shown on BBC News. It was a hilarious clip. Brown moved around the room like a typhoon, squeezing staff up against the wall. He then started to receive a briefing from the man with the wall map, but manic Brown had to appear to be directing operations so started making grand sweeping gestures across the map in a manner that befitted his Generalissimo status, whilst the briefer also continued to point at the map. Unfortunately no soundtrack was provided of Brown talking over, & therefore ignoring, the briefing.
Dorothy Wilson
January 8th, 2010 10:02am Report this commentMarcher Baron: It is typical of Labour that not only are they unable to organise a plot but in trying to do so end up with the worst of all worlds.
If in the next month or two they have yet another attempt to depose Brown they are going to open up all the increasingly sharp divides within the party just prior to an election.
If they keep him they will be going into an election with a leader who has - at best - lukewarm support from his immediate colleagues. If Labour did - by some fluke - win the election or we ended up with a hung parliament Brown would be deposed pretty smartish so, again, all the splits within Labour would be even wider than they are now.
You really could not make it. As the headline in the Mail said: Do they have a death wish?
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