Brown 6/4 to go before the next election

john

It has to be sooner than 2009 if present trends continue, and my feeling is for threats of backbench abstention and, as the shark pool beckons, voting with the oppostion, on such things as the 28 day + detention proposals and measures like the latest fuel tax initiative which would penalise the less well off more than most and will be Gordon's Poll Tax. March saw the Identity card initiative as good as dropped. The 10p was dropped. A government with a fair majority cannot go on backing down forever and retain its leader.

Steve Garner

I think Labour have to dump Brown by this Autumn or not until after the next GE. If they axe him after June 2009 the new leader would have no more than 9 months before the election to make any sort of impact. The electorate would be insulted by such a move.

Diana

What, another year before he gets told the same message from the voters?? What does he not understand? What does his party not understand?
The guy is a liability to the country. He only knows to tax and control. He has no other politics.
The sooner a coup, the better for us all.

Nicholas

The message from the electorate is not just about Brown. It is about the whole New Labour thing. The game is up, they are finished and the country wants a change, needs a change.

There have been so many re-launches and fightbacks that they have become like the boy who cried wolf. No one is interested in New Labour anymore, let alone Old Labour, New New Labour or regurgitated Labour. The sooner the former collective known as Labour and their dwindling supporters get that into their thick skulls, just go away and leave the British in peace, the better.

john

The point about election timing vis-a-vis new leadership is surely that for Labour to have had not one but two successive leaders who had acceded to the PM's office without winning a general election would excite more than a little ridicule and deny the new leader credibility. Whereas regaining credibility is Gordon's urgent task now. If he cannot do it soon, there must be an Autumn election with or without him. Cameron is already starting to goad him along his prickly path.

Oscar

Sorry to use the old cliche - but Labour are between a rock and a hard place and they know it. Damned if they ditch Gordon - damned if they don't. Yet again Gordon creates a lose-lose situation. Now he does have a talent for that.

Liz Brown

What part of DEAD, DECEASED, IS NO MORE do Labour not understand?

Water

"The message from the electorate is not just about Brown. It is about the whole New Labour thing. The game is up, they are finished and the country wants a change, needs a change" couldn't agree more.

Tian

Mugabe has more legitimacy than Brown. At least he has actually faced an election.

Tim

My God if Labour MP's are relying on EUROPEAN elections to provide good news for Brown, they've finally gone insane. This country is the most EU sceptic in the Eurpean Union and with the whole Constitution business are likely to crush Labour in any elections to do with Europe.

Mick245

Brown can console himself. If there is one thing held in more contempt than him, it's the European Union.

Water

"Mugabe has more legitimacy than Brown. At least he has actually faced an election" hahaha!

Daniella

This governement is definately on it's way out. When it becomes a case of them standing up TO the electorate not standing up FOR the electorate, the game is surely up. It happens to the best of them: Thatcher, Major, Blair......

Joey

The parallels between this government and John Major's is becoming ever more striking. It is now 'the people V the government', on nearly every issue. It is not the tories landing knock out blows on Brown it's the people/electorate.

John

If Brown plays it long to 2010 the voters will just become angrier with his perceived clinging on to power, unelected. This is good news for Conservatives as it makes a landslide victory more likely.

Blairsupporter

Joey when it gets to the, 'the people V the government' stage there can be only one loser, the GOVERNMENT. It's a question of when not if.

Gareth, Warwick,UK

John, totally agree. The tories should now persue the strategy of hitting them so hard, at the next election, that they do not get up for at least a decade or more.

Water

Daniella that's been the thought on most our minds it's safe to say.

TGF UKIP

One of Gordon's few natural gifts is that for bare-faced cheek and there is one stroke that he could pull and with one bound be free. It would chime in with his "we're on your side" spin and make monkeys of Dave and Boy George.

That is he could declare that just as families are having to tighten their belts, so must government and announce via a mini budget that the car tax increases are binned and that forthwith all departments are to restrict their 08/09 spending by 1.5% with the savings to go on tax cuts and pensioner credits. Would he do it, would he dare? Well Gordon has a reputation for dithering and cowardice but he is a desparate man and desparate men......... If the Tories had any sense they'd beat him to it, just in case.

Christopher Chantrill

For you punters and numerologists, 6/4 is June 4 in the US.

Is this ominous for El Gordito, or what?

Numerate

If he's 6/4 to go before the next election then that means he's odds on to remain in office at least until then. (If a bookie is offering 6/4 in a two-horse race, the other horse will be about 2-1 on.)

Joe

6/4 very spooky, as the last legal date he can hold a general election is June 3rd 2010.

H

Although some may feel there is a moral requirement for a new Prime Minister to go through a general election this is not necessary and is not a constitutional requirement as it is in the USA. At a general election the purpose of the votes is to determine who will represent the constituency as a Member of Parliament, not who will be the Prime Minister. John complains that Gordon Brown acceded to the post without winning a general election, winning a general election is not necessary mid term, and many PM’s have become Prime Minister without leading their party to a general election victory, the most recent being John Major and I do not remember calls for an immediate general election then. The British system is a Constitutional Monarchy in which the head of state (the Queen) invites the leader of (usually) the political party with the most seats in the Commons to form a government, like it or not Labour still have a commons majority and almost 2 years to govern if they wish.