When you step back and think about it, it’s really quite astonishing how fast and how emphatically Brown has fallen since his minor ‘bounce’ in the autumn. Sure, he was always going to struggle as the recession bit deeper and deeper. But to so swiftly get to this point – where all news is bad news; where there is little salve or comfort; and where hope is dying from suffocation – really takes some doing. Little wonder, then, that Labour now seems saturated by despair and self-loathing; something that’s captured wonderfully by two comment pieces in today’s papers.
The first is Andrew Rawnsley’s article in the Observer, an essential portrait of life in the Downing Street bunker. The story of cabinet ministers bickering in meetings – unable to nail down an approach to take over bankers’ bonuses, unable to decide whether Brown should apologise or not – is bad enough.
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