The mood in cabinet

Anne McElvoy has some telling details from inside yesterday’s meeting of the cabinet in her Evening Standard column this morning:

“It can’t go on for much longer,” says one Cabinet member who described yesterday’s meeting as “excruciating: an embarrassment”.

“It’s not just the country that’s not listening to Gordon any longer: the Cabinet isn’t listening to him. Something is going to give. There were people staring at their hands, some scribbling on their papers, someone else on their BlackBerry.” Anything rather than look their own leader in the eye.

Mr Brown told his Cabinet that issues about the direction of the party should not be raised until after the present economic turmoil.

The minister adds: “Gordon is now measuring his survival in two-week horizons. It’s humiliating for everyone.” The faces of the cabinet during Brown’s conference speech are going to be a picture.