More clever positioning from the plotters

One of the striking things about this uprising is how the plotters keep framing their positions perfectly—evidently some people in the Labour party haven’t forgotten what the party learned from Blair, Campbell and Mandelson. On Saturday, Joan Ryan presented her request for nomination papers as a matter of party democracy. Today, David Cairns’s resignation letter contains an argument that is going to resonate with an awful lot of the PLP. Cairns says that he wasn’t in favour of people requesting nomination papers in the first place, but now that the leadership issue is out in the open the Labour party cannot go on pretending it doesn’t exist.

Ultimately what might do for Brown is that there appears to be no way for him to stop the bleeding. He cannot reassert his authority unless he goes against his nature and does something bold like challenge anyone who is prepared to stand to a contest or turn the Glenrothes by-election into a referendum on his premiership.