Breaking up

Water

Very interesting.

Thomas Cussans

Frank Field's assault on McGordo is far the most devastating and damaging. Cherie's, Levy's and TwoJags' criticisms are no more or less than you would expect from those anxious to make as much money as they can from their books.

But Field is, properly, a man of integrity who has clearly understood for years McNutter's limitless shortcomings. For him to talk of 'indescribable' rages by McJonah is about as fatal as can be imagined, exactly summing up the vast petulance and self-regard of this very, very odd man.

I wish, by the way, someone would ask him directly how he reacts to having been called 'psychologically flawed'. Then I think the volcano would erupt.

scott21

Johnson on Today this morning doing his Buff Hoon election night routine was brilliant. They're ALL breaking up! Go Frank Field.

richard j

If you plot and scheme as much as this unelected Scot PM has,its no wonder there is no substance and even less loyalty. Will he last the year from taking office?

Water

Though he may not lead Labour into the next elections, if he dictates the course of events for the next couple of years then it will only bode well for the Tories. This said I wouldn’t call the man psychologically flawed; he just makes the wrong decisions (on a large scale). As such the Tory party has a very strong chance.

molesworth 1

A hypothesis:

After a disastrous 10 months for Brown, mainly of his own making, there are factions within the

Labour Party & beyond whose patience has finally snapped.
Having seen the writing on the wall, apropos the London Mayoral election & other polling results, they

have decided to topple Brown as soon as possible; the idea being that an election would almost

certainly have to be called leaving the Tories in a blind panic, bereft of policies (& costings for them) &

so open to attack.
Frank Field's rebellion was only the first salvo - anybody who thinks that the abolition of the 10p

tax-rate was not noticed by the likes of Blair, Field & others is being too credulous. The point was,

Brown having picked up the spade & turned the first sod, to leave him digging until he was in too deep

to recover - which now looks to be the case.
With the London Mayoral & local council election results going how they did the big guns of

NewLabour have now turned on Brown with a full barrage. Their objective, in my view, is to lose

Crewe & Nantwich (note how nervous some Tories are about winning there), precipitate a leadership

bid, followed by a hastily called General Election - the thinking being it would be better to have a

reduced Lab. majority now (or a hung Parliament with The LibDems as king-makers) than a Tory

landslide in two years, which would see the Labour Party politically dead for a number of years.
So the salient question, for those like me, is where to place my bets so that I benefit from the pain of

these ghastly politicians.

Ann

Hmm ... Field folded a couple of weeks ago, eagerly believing Bean's lies and blandishments about the 10% abolition. Man of integrity? He seems as changeable as a windsock.

Tiberius

Regimes with internal contradictions do eventually collapse under the weight of them, but I don't suppose any of us who have agonized at the unwarranted earlier successes of NuLab could have imagined such a nosedive as we are witnessing now. TC: I suppose Brown would show the camera his recently completed dental work and say, "that's just Alastair being Alastair".

Ian C

There must be a fast dawning realisation in the top fo the the Labour Party that their best hope of survival in a recognisable form is to go for as early election as soon possible, in order to minimise the damage. This means sacking Gordon and calling an elction with Straw doing the Michael Howard job. The upside is they hold on to power, the risk is that they lose baly enough but probably not terminally. If they don't, my guts tell me that it will be forced on them, probably in the autumn or next spring. I cannot yet see what will do it but F Field is the best bet as GB will have to try to face him down.

Austin Barry

Presumably for Frank Field it's payback time for McBroon's 10p duplicity and his breathtaking failure to respond to Adam Boulton's question about Field's integrity. Brown, deluded and increasingly isolated, probably rationalises all these attacks as the arrows of misguided Lilliputians, but the momentum is gaining and the endgame must surely be approaching.

Hysteria

molesworth: - interesting hypothesis. But surely what we are seeing is the bankruptcy of the whole labour movement. So early or late it doesn't really matter when we have an election -. Once the Tories adopted a more caring (and believable) attitude, then it takes away the raison d'etre for the Left.

Conservatism always was caring of course - just the route to achieve greater prosperity lies with the people themselves, not in a command economic model.