The Brownites still think they can win the election

So, back to the Labour leadership with Patrick Hennessy’s snappy article on the subject for the Sunday Telegraph.  The main sweep of Hennessy’s piece is that Brown is likely to step down quickly in the event of defeat; that Harriet Harman could well fill the caretaker leader role; and that certain Dark Forces are moving to install David Miliband as party leader proper.  The colour, though, lies in a couple of juicy snippets which are worth repeating here:

“Last week, this newspaper has learnt, Lord Mandelson was overheard telling colleagues of his difficulties running the campaign when other figures – who could only be Miss Harman and her followers – kept insisting that every event must have a proper ‘gender balance.'”

“Some of those around Mr Brown still believe that there is a chance of victory on Thursday – and were sending hopeful text messages to each other this weekend.”