|
Written by Austin Mitchell
|
|
11 September 2006 |
|
News Front for the life time after the night before. tony has gone to the Middle East on his Walter Mitty tour, to urge a ceasefire in the Labour Party. The Telegraph says (and hopes) that the backlash against Brown has begun. Peter Hain is running round crying “Don`t Panic”. Alan Johnson is smiling enigmatically, and the great (but diminishing) bulk of a Party kept out of this Westminister Village Gala may be despairing but isn`t panicking. It just wants us all to shut up.
We should. Tony can`t give a date without losing what little authority he still has. It would be folly for him to go before June. We`re bound to lose out in the Scottish, Welsh and local elections anyway. So Tony might as well get the blame, then Gordon the credit from the bounce when he becomes PM and Tony Baron Blair of Baghdad.
He should grab that for an early election – on the old boundaries. We lose a dozen or more seats on the new and need a new mandate for a new start.
Preferably with a troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. No point in Gordon winning for a dying diminuendo. He deserves better than that. |
