Gordon Brown under seige
The election results are not even through yet, and Brown already has a crisis.
A third Cabinet Minister has resigned this week, and told Brown he should resign as PM. His letter says:
“We both love the Labour Party. I have worked for it for 20 years and you for far longer.
‘‘We know we owe it everything and it owes us nothing. I owe it to our party to say what I believe no matter how hard that may be. I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more not less likely.
‘‘That would be disastrous for our country. This moment calls for stronger regulation, an active state, better public services, an open democracy. It calls for a Government that measures itself by how it treats the poorest in society. Those are our values, not David Cameron’s.
‘‘We therefore owe it to our country to give it a real choice. We need to show that we are prepared to fight to be a credible Government and have the courage to offer an alternative future.
‘‘I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our Party a fighting chance of winning. As such I am resigning from Government.
Brown is gone – either this year, or at next year’s elections. What I am interested in is who will be the next Leader of the Labour Party?
And I wonder how happy Tony Blair is today?
June 5th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Gordon Brown is a lot like Helen Clark. The big difference that Helen was competent, successful and had balls.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I see his jounior MPs are revolting by email.
A cyber coups by the looks of it.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
“I see his jounior MPs are revolting by email.”
You could have quite easily halted that sentence two words earlier.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
No relief for the UK people tho. Waiting in the wings is David Cameron. Another useless left wing chameleon.
Never mind. We’re all over the west, inching daily closer to the precipice.
Whereupon voters may awake from their slumbers and cease electing no idea collectivists who only differ from each other in terms of the rate they wish to travel down the socialist road.
Interesting to see who steps into the political vacuum when Cameron and his collection of spineless amoebas are eventually exposed and booted.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Could have, but didn’t.
It is just one facet of their general revoltingness and I needed to be case specific.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
It was always going to be a struggle for Brown, as Blair had handed him a poisoned chalice when he turned the reigns over.
Blair has always been happy now that he can make £10million a year on American speaking tours, and not have to continually answer questions over his handling of Iraq. (The media in the UK have always been especially aggressive toward Blair and Alistair Campbell’s ‘message management’). Blair got out while he was till ahead and had a tiny bit of political capital left.
Brown’s problem is that he had so many chances and blew every single one of them, whilst having to shoulder most of Balr’s fuckups, too. (being chancellor during his premiership). In many ways, Brown has become Labour’s John Major – an undistinguished caretaker prime minister.
Now Health Secretary Alan Johnson is being lined up as Brown’s successor. The problem is that anyone with designs on the Labour leadership does not want to be the one to lead the party into a losing election. Another thing worth baring in mind is that unlike the Conservatives, the UK Labour part do not do ‘palace intrigue’ very well, and prefer to give their leaders coronations at national conferences.
This could just be a very slow death for them, or Brown sees sense and orders an election now, to put himself out of his misery.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
A predictable result of their FPP system.
You vote for a Tory or a Labour MP, and you get what they give you. It means that the great majority of electorates are not competitive, and the Parliament is filled with dead sheep. I think most people in Britain don’t have any love for either party right now. Unfortunately, frustrated people are turning to the fascist BNP.
Any sane politician would be campaigning for a change in electoral system right now.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
@georgedarroch
I think there is talk of change now, and especially in the wake of the expenses scandal, there is a good chance of electoral reform occuring.
The FPP system has, in some ways, made British democracy dysfunctional. If you are a conservative in Liverpool or a socialist in west London, you will never get represented on a national level.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
“# metcalph (319) Vote: Add rating 6 Subtract rating 2 Says:
June 5th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Gordon Brown is a lot like Helen Clark. The big difference that Helen was competent, successful and had balls.”
Thank you for that.
I love a good belly-laugh before starting work of a day.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Brown will be gone in weeks. I’m guessing his successor will go to the polls within a couple of months, hoping that a new broom and a honeymoon period might rescue them. I doubt it will, but it is their only hope.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
FPP is a lot damn better than MMP.
When the Conservatives get into power after a landslide victory that all but destroys Labour they will be able to make real decisions and carry out real actions. No slowly slowly like in NZ.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
@davidp
They don’t have a donkeys. Read the comments below a Brown blog post at The Guardian (the voice of liberal UK) to see just how even Labour’s core supporters have deserted the party.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/04/gordon-brown-labour-leadership
June 5th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
@OECD rank 22 kiwi
The reason British voters feel disenfranchised is for exactly the reason you say FPP is successful.
Labour was also elected in 1997 in a landslide victory, and proceeded to alienate the people who got them into power. With two main parties now pursuing the sacred middleground, this is not going to change under Cameron.
Cameron will sooner offend his own party faithful than middle-england swing voters, and British conservatives will feel unrepresented with no choice but Cameron at the ballot box.
MMP coalitions are an externalised version of what used to happen within the two party system, when large parties had to bring many factions together to create a united front. But what makes MMP better, is that voters feel like their votes count for something, even if their party doesn’t get in.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
@ephemera. John Major actually won an election…
June 5th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
@Rakaia George
Haha, true.
It is a dubious honour indeed, to be considered less charismatic than John Major.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
“Unfortunately, frustrated people are turning to the fascist BNP.”
Get off the grass Georgie. You and your Watermelon/ socialist mates have the market cornered on neo-fascism.
As for the hapless wittering above about failure of the system, the only failure has been that the abject bunch of left wing weasels rejoicing in the name of “The Conservative Party” have done practically nothing to differentiate themselves from Labour. It is this failure that is also responsible for the growth of the BNP.
Of course, in the end, its all down to the left, but nobody with a brain expects much more from that rabble. The Conservatives on the other hand have failed totally to live up to the principles of that party, and in the interests of political accuracy, should be forced to change their name. In a state of steady deterioration since Thatchers departure, something like the Craven Cowards Party would be far more accurate.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I think a new government in Britain would be very welcome. It appears to me that Britain has huge problems with family breakdown, teenage violence and an unassimilated rapidly growing Muslim minority. Hopefully the new government will be less PC and will start dealing with the issues highlighted above. Restoring the rule of law would be a good start.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
@Redbaiter – the BNP are far left, not right. As Norman Tebbitt says “Labour, with racism”.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
The BNP hate gays, love traditional marriage, hate black people, want woman back in the home and are nostalgic for the Royal family and the good old days of the British empire..
Yup sound like a right bunch of lefties to me!
June 5th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
@Rakaia George
While is true your typical BNP voter is a former Labour voter, the BNP can’t really be placed on the left.
The BNP argue themselves to represent white, working class interests. This in itself doesn’t make them left-wing, but it certainly puts them against Labour who traditionally attracted that demographic.
It is interesting you quote Norman Tebbit, as he has been credited with bringing white, working-class voters to the conservatives in the 1980s. Cameron doesn’t seem to have such a figure in his lineup now, which IMHO, is a bit of an oversight.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
“the good old days of the British empire..”
What, before big government global socialists like you fucked everything up?
At least the Brits respected the rights of the individual.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Tony Blair is not happy of course because the Labour Party might be reduced to the third force in British politics. God I wish that would happen in NZ. I read a book on Brown written by Tom Bower. It is a brilliant analysis of this deeply flawed man. He was a cuckoo in the nest. I bet Tony Blair regrets he did not find a way to fire Brown and destroy Brown’s career. But then Blair probably did not realise just how bad Brown is.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Rakaia George (158) Vote: 2 0 Says:
June 5th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
@ephemera. John Major actually won an election… – Sorry George it was labour that lost it, electors don’t vote governments in they vote them out as NZ so proudly did last November.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
@sonic. The BNP are committed to tax rises, nationalisation, external tariffs, state-run manufacturing industries with workers’ councils to run them and actually in favour of abolishing the monarchy. That should be lefty enough, even for you.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
@freethinker. But the Conservatives were the government and didn’t get voted out, so by your logic they won? Granted Kinnock was unelectable, but Bliar stuck him on the Euro gravy train, which says just about all that needs to be said about the EU.
June 6th, 2009 at 12:26 am
@Rakaia George
You credit the BNP with posessing actual policy.