How depressed is the left?

Martin Bright and Jackie Ashley are two of the most astute and influential commentators on the left. So I was particularly struck by how bearish about Brown’s prospects they both are; it is a sign of the times that the fact that Ashley does not totally rule out the possibility that Brown might recover is considered news.   

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Simon Cook

Pensioners have never had it so good

.Here’s how Bright ends his typically excellent politics column in this week’s New Statesman:

“in the present atmosphere of seemingly terminal pessimism, many MPs on the government benches would happily take the Wilson outcome: four years in opposition followed by a Labour return to power has to be better than the 18 years in the wilderness after Callaghan’s defeat.”