A Straw in the wind

Today’s Guardian reveals that Brown, unsurprisingly, plans to hang on until the last possible moment before going to the country. Brown hopes that two years will give him time to turn thing round or—more realistically—that something will turn up in this period.

More immediately, though, all eyes seem to be on Jack Straw who is, word has it, putting himself forward as the man who could tell Gordon the game is up. The Guardian reports that:

Eyebrows were raised when Straw pulled out of a planned broadcast interview on Friday in the wake of the byelection defeat. It is not clear when he will next appear on the media. “Jack Straw is strangely silent,” one senior Labour figure said. But this speculation was dismissed by Straw supporters. “Jack doesn’t even own a grey suit,” one friend said.