It’s obvious that Brown’s the impediment, why doesn’t Labour strike?

Well, Brown the Statesman was a short-lived incarnation. The BBC reports that Brown and Clegg exchanged ‘angry words’ yesterday evening and that Brown delivered a characteristic private political conversation: ‘a diatribe laced with threats’.

Clegg and Brown simply cannot work together. This inability to put aside personal differences is far from magnanimous of both men, but it is plain that Brown no longer commands the authority to shape the nation’s future. If there’s no hope of a Lib-Lab coalition with Brown at the helm, then the knives will be sharpening – again. From Labour’s perspective, delaying the inevitable would be fatal as it gives Cameron more time to negotiate with Clegg knowing that he is Clegg’s only option. 

UPDATE: Sources deny that the talks were ill-tempered. That misses the point. Were the talks successful?