One figure I’d like to see is the ratio of Labour MPs who think Gordon should go against those – all six of them – who actually told him to go during the PLP meeting yesterday. What would it be? 10:1? 20:1? 30:1? One thing’s for sure: those half-dozen honest souls aren’t the only ones who’d like to see the back of Brown. So why all the desk-banging? It’s just utterly surreal.
The behind-the-scenes loathing is a theme developed by Rachel Sylvester in her Times column this morning. She writes of Cabinet dissent; of MPs fed up with the “sense of paralysis” at the heart of government; and of the resentment that backbenchers feel. But it’s this passage which stands out:
“I am told that even yesterday David Miliband was still considering going privately to tell the Prime Minister that he should stand down.

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