End of an era

The moral compass says it’s time for a new direction

Goodbye, Gordon

At just after 5pm Gordon Brown emerged from behind the Number 10 door to announce to the media that had been camped there since Friday morning that he has triggered the process to be replaced as leader of the Labour Party - a process that should be completed by the autumn. He will remain as Prime Minister until some kind of coalition is put together. The idea being that the coalition is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Although talks between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives are still going on (positive, constructive, blah blah blah), Brown’s resignation removes one of the main obstacles to the Liberal Democrats switching to Labour, and “secret” talks have in fact already taken place. If we were in limbo this morning, it’s just gotten more, well, limbo-ey.

All of which means Prime Minister-in-waiting, David Cameron, is going to have to wait a little longer. But the longer he waits, the more he loses the moral high ground in the race to grab the keys to No.10. On the other hand, perhaps if he waits it out, the so-called progressive alliance could simply flounder into obscurity, and he could ride to the rescue. At time of writing, it is being reported that the Tories are have responded by making a “final offer” of a referendum on the alternative vote (AV) system. It’s not proportional representation (PR), in fact it’s potentially even further from it, but it could benefit the Lib Dems, so it could be tempting…

As for Gordon Brown, how will he be remembered? In so many ways this has been a tragedy. Having waited over a decade, he finally got his hands on the prize and at first it all seemed to be going so well - remember the Glasgow bombing? But then the dithering started and everything began to unravel. It’s like one of those Channel 4 “modern interpretations” of Julius Caesar.


QUOTE OF THE DAY

“As leader of my party I must accept that that is a judgement on me. I therefore intend to ask the Labour Party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election. I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour Party conference. I will play no part in that contest, I will back no individual candidate.” – Gordon Brown