As Pete says, it is hard to see Alan Johnson’s article in The Times today as anything other than another flash of leadership leg from him. The tectonic plates do seem to be shifting on the Labour side. There appears to have been a hardening of attitudes, a recognition that their only chance of avoiding disaster is to dump Brown after June 4th. Whether that means any of them will have the courage to tell Brown to his face that he has to go is another matter.
What could Johnson do for Labour? So much public anger is focused on Brown that his removal would drain a considerable amount of the poison away. Second, Johnson, who has clean hands on expenses, could come up with a whole raft of radical constitutional proposals—from PR to fixed term parliaments—that the Conservatives would oppose for both principled and self-interested reasons.
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