Labouring on

Peter Riddell is not a man prone to hyperbole so when he writes that “The malaise is real and it is widespread. The Brown Government is in deep trouble” we should sit up and take notice. As Peter notes, much of the problem stems from the teething troubles surrounding the arrival of new people at Number Ten who have not meshed with the old team.

One of the oddest things about Stephen Carter’s new hires is why they keep talking to PR Week, hardly a subtle venue for strategic leaking. Philip Webster reports one Minister irritably asking, “What is going on here? Do people think they can go running to a trade magazine and somehow not have their thoughts end up in the national press? It is crazy and destabilising”.

When you consider what will probably happen in the next few weeks—Labour losing London, a bad set of local election results, Lord Levy’s book reigniting both the cash for honours row and the old Blairite-Brownite divide—it is tempting to say that things can only get worse for Brown. The Prime Minister desperately needs to get back on the front foot or the feeling that waiting until 2010 to is merely delaying the inevitable will begin to set in.