Politics

I wrote earlier that Brown is being urged to sack David Miliband.  But the Mirror’s Bob Roberts puts forward a different scenario – that Brown annoints Miliband as his heir apparent, thereby avoiding a leadership challenge now.  According to Roberts, our Prime Minister’s “ready” to do this, too – he may even seal the deal by making Miliband his Chancellor. Hm.  You can see the attraction for Brown – unless he does something pretty drastic, he’s likely to be forced out before the next election, and won’t have any chance to rectify his battered reputation.  But two problems present themselves: 1) this could make Brown seem even weaker, and 2) I doubt people will be too keen on yet another

Cameron “does” punters very well. When I’ve followed him on the campaign trail, I’ve been struck by how he has a gift whereby he can click with pretty much anyone. For those who didn’t see his interview on Newsnight last night, you can watch it again here. It was arranged by Radio One’s Rajini Vaidyanathan, who has a deadly knack of catching politicians off guard (as Gordon Brown found out). She had assembled what should, for Cameron, have been a troublesome mix of Radio One listeners. A working single mother from Gravesend who wanted to know why she should be discriminated against under the Tories, and thought Cameron as “borderline

As Fraser writes in his cover piece today, Miliband doesn’t want to bloody his hands during any leadership struggle. Sure, the Foreign Secretary’s plotting with the best of them. But as for being the one to stick the knife between Brown’s shoulder-blades – that can be left for Jack Straw or any of that batch of ministers prepared to resign over all this. Or at least that’s the plan. Problem is, there’s always the chance that others won’t want to do Miliband’s dirty work for him. Jack Straw certainly isn’t too keen on the idea. And I suspect Harriet Harman, Ed Balls or any of the other suspected plotters won’t

A quick update to my earlier post: according to the Evening Standard, ten ministers are now prepared to quit in protest at Brown’s leadership.  Of course, they may not go ahead with it.  But the story still fuels the idea that dissatisfaction with Gordon Brown is hardening, rather than fizzling away over the summer as Downing Street would have hoped.  Apparently, most in Labour now consider a revolt at the beginning of September “highly likely”.  It’s becoming increasingly difficult to disagree.

What happens when politicians shut themselves away, and stare into an abyss both political and personal? After Bruce Anderson’s revelations about Gordon Brown yesterday, I think we need to know. So I re-watched Robert Altman’s 1984 film Secret Honor last night, looking for a bit of elucidation. Secret Honor gives us a fictionalised, post-Watergate Richard Nixon. He locks himself in a room – not with a computer and the garbled recollection of a Dominic Grieve quote, but with a bottle of scotch and a loaded gun – and delivers his political testimony to a tape recorder.  That’s what we get for the next 90 minutes. Stephen yesterday referred to Brown’s actions as “more that political paranoia”. 

Rachel Sylvester’s article in today’s Times is a perfect summary of the plots threatening the Labour leadership. Two passages jumped out at me: “Civil servants – who can sink or save a politician – have not warmed to Mr Brown. ‘People say he’s charming in private but it’s completely untrue,’ an official who has worked closely with him said. ‘He’s incredibly rude. He doesn’t remember names. His e-mails are brusque demands. And his defining characteristic is anger. I’ve seen him kicking furniture.’” And “I spoke to a junior minister yesterday who claims to be prepared to resign in September in protest at Mr Brown’s leadership and believes that nine other government