This is how you should use your reprieve, Gordon

Irwin Stelzer says the PM should seize the opportunity presented by this stay of execution: plot a path to fiscal sanity, cut red tape and restore Britain’s stature on the world stage

Now that Gordon Brown is determined to go down with the Labour ship, or to sink it, if you believe his harshest critics, he might want to consider a few things he can do in the short time left to him at Number 10 to enable historians to be kinder to him. Leave office he might be forced to do after the general election he has so long resisted. But it remains open to him to do so with a sense of satisfaction that, on present form, will be denied him.

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Douglas Murray

Britain is losing friends – and making enemies

Of course, nothing is certain in politics. Remember Harry Truman, who in my country took a victory turn thumbing his nose at headlines announcing that he had lost the 1948 election? Or John Major in yours? Two developments might save the Prime Minister’s bacon.