65 days to go …

Now 65 days until the September deadline a Labour MP told TV3 Shearer had to improve his performance.

Hamish Rutherford at Stuff reports:

Yesterday Shearer dismissed the talk of a leadership battle.

“There is going to be me leading Labour into the election in 2014,” he said.

“I can absolutely and utterly assure you of that. It’s a very united caucus.”

Really? You look desperate when you say such nonsense. When Charles Chauvel departed in February he pleaded for an end to internal witchhunts, called for a purge of those responsible for the last campaign failure, and asked for those in the wrong faction to stop being shut out of the shadow Cabinet. How is that a united caucus?

This morning iPredict, the forecasting website owned by Victoria University of Wellington, pointed to a 40 per cent chance that Shearer would depart as Labour leader in 2013, with the possibility climbing in recent weeks.

I think Shearer has problems, but they are not yet terminal. In fact I have a bit of money on iPredict that he won’t be rolled in 2013. However I may change my position as events unfold in the next few weeks.