Toasting Darling and Hoon?
Another bright new dawn, another day of high political drama begins.
The new Westminster consensus is that is toast -- and the practitioners of the dark arts in Downing Street are doing nothing to persuade us otherwise. could be burnt beyond repair as well.
Both were notorious "flippers" of their first and second homes, always to their huge financial advantage, and both claimed expenses to which they were not entitled (though the sums were modest).
We'll know their fate come the re-shuffle, expected on Friday (as the local election results come in), or Saturday (after the local results but before the ), or Monday (after all the results are announced and Gordon Brown knows just how bad it is) -- yes, you're right, we have no idea what day the reshuffle will be on!
As leading Cabinet ministers twist in the wind awaiting developments, today's lead editorial in the calls on Labour folk to vote Lib Dem in the European elections. It is quite an endorsement: during the last Euro-elections in 2004, when the Guardian was furious about the war in Iraq and the Lib Dems were the only mainstream anti-war party, the paper still stuck grudgingly with Labour.
Mr Brown will not be happy. But he will be even angrier with the , which this morning urges the removal of the PM and an immediate election under a new leader. So, the left-wing press has finally decided that Mr Brown has to go -- and that will be significant in any palace coup attempts post-Thursday's elections.
The Prime Minister is as he attempts to shore up his position. Much good it is doing him: despite back-to-back appearances on all the major networks he has yet to generate a single positive headline for himself, though he has managed to undermine his Chancellor and make several other cabinet colleagues feel distinctly queasy. One Labour wag joked with me that things would be much better if Mr Brown stopped appearing on TV!
We'll see less of him today because he'll be locked in Cabinet concocting his great constitutional reform agenda. It will, of course, merit serious consideration and no doubt our constitution could do with a spring clean. But sometimes Westminster seems to be on a parallel universe to the rest of the country: my sense is that the popular cry is not for any great reforms, just for honest politicians.
But no doubt you'll let me know ...
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