Given the speed and nature of current events, there is a real danger that we in the press start to hyperventilate, declaring the Brown government doomed before breakfast every day. But the piece by Neal Lawson, the chair of Compass, in The Independent calling on Brown to return to the Treasury for the good of the movement does seem like a seismic moment. (Although, Compass has been critical of Brown recently this is the first time it has called on the leader to step down)
Compass cannot be dismissed as a fringe group. It is representative of the broad left—just look at the list of speakers it has lined up for its conference this year—and for its head to call for the Prime Minister to resign is significant. It also speaks to the speed of disillusionment with Brown on the soft left; less than a year ago Lawson was speculating that Brown could be the most successful Labour leader since Clement Attlee.
In some ways, you can dismiss Lawson: he represents a strain of the left that could never win a general election let alone successfully govern modern Britain. But Brown courted people like Lawson and groups like Compass—he spoke at its conference in 2004—hinting that he would allow the left to return to its comfort zone, ditching even the modest reforms that Blair had pioneered. It only serves him right that these self-same groups are now exacerbating his problems.
Comments