The dithering party

Andrew Rawnsley hits the nail on the head when he says that a “Prime Minister cannot be on perpetual probation”. At some point soon if it is not to go down to total disaster at the next election, Labour will either have to back or sack Brown. But as Rawnsley points out, Labour is in too much of a shambles to do either.

There is, though, a reason other than incompetence preventing Labour from making a decision. Everyone assumes that the Brownites will do all they can, and that is still an awful lot, to stop whoever topples Gordon from succeeding him. So, if you’re one of the non-Miliband possible leadership contenders—think Jack Straw, Harriet Harman, Alan Johnson—then it is in your interest to sit back and wait for someone else to do the dirty work of removing Brown, you can then hope to step into the breach as a unity candidate.