Loyalty, Miliband style as Blairites Plot and Blears Blubs

It can't really be much fun being in the Labour party at the moment - it's almost as bad as Formula 1 for high political drama!

I really don't know how David "the Ditherer" Miliband does it. He's let a few more drops of poison drop from his tongue in an interview with the Guardian today.

He may well have had to wrestle with his conscience about whether to stay in Gordon Brown's government, but did he really need to share his inner turmoil with us, a week after the event? It's a sign of Gordon Brown's weakness that he can't sack him for continuing to undermine his leadership and effectively saying that he's only in the Government because of Peter Mandelson.

His insights into current ministerial thinking do little to allay assertions that the Government is finished.

"Labour first needs a period of competent, effective, stable government; secondly, we need to reset our political compass so ministers are no longer locked in their departments, but link their policies to their values; and thirdly, the government has to be at the cutting edge of policy."

So, what he's effectively saying is that the Government in which he occupies one of the main offices of state has been ineffective, incompetent and unstable - and that Government policy has no basis in their values. That's pretty damning! I suppose it was so obvious, but even still, for a minister to actually admit that the Government has lost the plot is quite something.

At the same time, we have Peter Mandelson warning of further leadership challenges. I guess this is a message to plotting Blairites, that, like Sting in the song, he's watching every breath they take."

I was amused by one point in his interview where he outlined his 3 pieces of advice to Gordon Brown:

"I believe in leadership and in being decisive.

"Secondly, in listening to people and respecting official advice you receive.

"And thirdly, introducing a bit of humour and jollity to your work."

The mental image that that has conjured up, of Brown leading Downing Street staff in a conga on Friday afternoons, is not entirely pleasing.

And finally, in a move that's I'm sure is completely unrelated to a planned motion of no confidence in her as MP by her local constituency party, Hazel Blears has said sorry cos she didn't realise that resigning as local government secretary on the day before local government elections might be harmful to the Government, that she'd somehow get lost in the crowd of departing ministers. I suspect the real reason for her tears is that she's not being hailed as the woman who brought down Gordon Brown. His survival was clearly as unexpected to her as Glenn Close jumping out of the bath at the end of Fatal Attraction.

No doubt we will continue to be served up such delights in the press. How nice would it be if they all stopped bitching and got on with governing? Way too much to hope for!






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Government implodes as treacherous Blairites get their revenge

I guess what I'm going to say isn't going to be that popular, but, hey, when did I ever let that stop me? My sympathy is actually with Gordon Brown this morning.

Sure, the Government is on its last legs, as I've written before. That's not all Gordon Brown's fault - the Labour Party lost its way a long time ago, when it came into office and cut benefits to lone parents, when it launched an illegal war in Iraq and when allowed people to be detained for 6 weeks without charge.

I remember the last time Ministers and MPs turned on a sitting PM - Mrs Thatcher in 1990. At that time, I actually has a fair amount of sympathy with the likes of Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine and Douglas Hurd who were watching an arrogant, out of touch and intransigent Thatcher press on with her isolationist stance in Europe and the unfair Poll Tax.

This time, I have absolutely no sympathy with the assassins. Let's face it, Gordon's card was marked the second he walked into Downing Street. The Blairites were always going to be out to get their revenge for the wars that raged between number 10 and number 11 when their guy was PM.

I think the way in which Blears and Purnell have left has been absolutely disgraceful. Blears, already tarnished by the expenses scandal which meant her jacket was on a shoogly peg anyway (why the hell didn't Gordon sack her weeks ago?)decides to quit the day before a major election. Then, Purnell gives his resignation letter to the papers in the middle of the afternoon on polling day, leading to all sorts of rumours and leaks before the polls closed. Bloody hell! It's bad enough that cabinet ministers can't put the needs of the country, gripped by Labour's recession, above their plotting, but it's unbelievable that they are willing to drive a stake through the heart of any electoral prospects they might have.

While I can see how the public might have thought that the idea of Heseltine as PM 19years ago might have been a bit of an oasis after a long period of drought, I can't imagine that anybody actually thinks that Purnell, or even the matey Alan Johnson, could do any better.

My prediction on 1st January was that there wouldn't be a General Election in 2009 but it's looking as if it's now almost inevitable as we the Government dissolves in a lethal cocktail of incompetence and treachery.

The people deserve better - look back to Nick Clegg's words at PMQs the other day: "The Governemnt doesn't get it. Labour is finished. We don't have a Government, we have a void." It's highly insulting to the people who are losing their jobs right, left and centre to have Ministers concentrating on fighting each other rather than dealing with the recession and looking long term as to how it's going to deal with the resulting debt we're in.

If the Labour administration was a sick animal, the only humane thing to do would be to take it on a one way trip to the vet. Watching its howls of pain as it goes through its death throes makes me uncomfortable as well as angry.

Yes, Gordon Brown is complex, notoriously difficult to work for and has lurched from one disaster to another, but he looks good compared to the treacherous ministers who can scarcely hide their glee as they wield their daggers.

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