Strange Famous

Well - has the East End of Glasgow finished Brown off?

By Elections are by elections, but to lose the 25th safest seat in the country is unthinkable. Losing Crewe was unthinkable.

Whether or not Brown really is the worst primeminister since the Earl of Bute is another question, but does he HAVE to go now? Surely it is impossible for him to come back from this level of unpopularity... the economic downturn is not all his fault - but his weakness, his dithering, his inability to make decisions, his lack of charisma, the 10% taxation outrage (and the car tax disaster he seems to be sleepwalking into as well)... I dont know who else there is to turn to, but there must be voices in Labour now calling for drastic action.

Sack Brown, bring in Jack Straw as a "caretaker" leader, call a snap election and accept a defeat with Tories holding something like a 50 seat majority... and try to rebuild the damage done by the slow erosion of what Labour stood for under Blair and the calamity of the leadership of Brown.

Is it now getting to the state that this idea doesnt sound that crazy?

Ive heard talk that even Labour MPs are saying privately things like "well, Cameron wouldnt be that bad, we've had a good innings, etc etc".. two more years of Brown could destroy the movement. God forbid, if there *IS* a crisis of some kind, a war or attack on the UK - would you want this ditherer, this bottler, in charge?

__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

jorgelito

I think Brown will find a way to hang in there even if by a thread.

For us non-UK people, can you give us a brief primer on your political system Strange Famous?

Thanks for sharing.

__________________
"The race is not always to the swift, nor battle to the strong, but
to the one that endures to the end."

"Demand more from yourself, more than anyone else could ever ask!"

- My recruiter

Strange Famous

In the UK the official head of state is the queen, but the practical head of state is the PM, and the PM is not selected directly by the people, but is leader of the main party in the lower house of parliament (ie - the parliament of local representatives of each constituancy (which is an area of approx 80,000 people)).

Brown is PM, and he is very very unpopular.

__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

tisonlyi

It's nothing to do with brown.

It's cycles of UK politics, where the media jump all over one side, then the other.

__________________
"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." - Winston Churchill, 1937 --{ORLY?}--

guyy

To some degree he's paying for Blair's mistakes. The Iraq war was a tremendously bad idea, and also quite unpopular -- There were 1,000,000 people marching against the Iraq war in the streets of London one day in 2003! Then there was the exceedingly ugly Kelly affair... Where does one stop? You can't get back at Tony B. Liar at this point, so you vote against his sucessor and his enablers.

Charlatan

Brown is the Paul Martin of the UK.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

highthief

I agree - his biggest sin is the same as that of Mr. Dithers - can't make up his mind, waffles and flip flops. That's what happens when you're number 2 for too long.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

The Nightfly

I agree. The media swings like a pendulum between Conservative and Labour, regular as clockwork, and I have a sneaky suspicion that newspapers affect people's opinions in the UK.

As was just said on Newsnight, there's no left party to vote for now that Labour are pretty much occupying the same ground as Conservatives. For me it's just a choice of voting for who I disagree with the least.