The Gordfather

“Barzini’s dead. So is Phillip Tattaglia — Moe Greene — Strachi — Cuneo — Today I settle all Family business.” Remember that scene in The Godfather, where Michael Corleone tells his soon-to-be-executed brother-in-law that the Corleones have settled all their vendettas in a bloody spree of vengeance? That’s what Westminster feels like this morning. The Gordfather has seen them off: all of them. Milburn, Blunkett, Johnson, Clarke, Miliband, and now, unexpectedly, Reid. He has settled all Brownite Family business. He is the unchallenged Don. But – of course – we know from Godfather Part II that blood quickly begets blood, that feuding abhors a vacuum.  In today’s Guardian, Jackie Ashley argues that John Reid’s decision to resign as Home Secretary will end the factionalism. Sorry, Jackie. I don’t think so.