Peace is not about to break out

I am amused by much of the coverage of John Reid’s resignation which focuses on the upside for Gordon Brown of securing a senior vacancy in the Cabinet. The exit en masse of veteran Blairites may well be handy for a new Prime Minister looking to surround himself with new talent (old Pope, young cardinals and all that). But the notion that the mass surrender of Mr Blair’s allies is the prelude to a new era of unity in the Labour Party is utterly hilarious. For details, see today’s Evening Standard in which Peter Mandelson warns Mr Brown that “the temptation will always be there to go back to the old ways of putting the party first and the public second, of talking to ourselves when we should be listening to others, with the result that the party will end up losing.”  He urges Labour not to retreat to “its comfort zones” and to remain tough in its foreign policy.