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And it’s too late baby, now it’s too late

Watching the Labour Party slowly commit political suicide today has been far less pleasant than I would have expected. Switching onto the Daily Politics just before Prime Minister’s Questions, we were treated to Andrew Neil and Nick Robinson joking together about the ridiculous possibility of an imminent coup against Brown. Over in the Commons, Brown managed quite an effective performance at the dispatch box for a change – although to hear the Tories online this afternoon, it was all a plot by Cameron to make Brown look better and therefore ensure his survival until the General Election. The Opposition benches were obviously as oblivious to Hoon and Hewitt’s plot as the rest of us, whilst it was enacted on the BlackBerries of Labour backbenchers.

Whatever Geoff and Patsy were trying to achieve with their letter, it is bound to fail. The first point is, unlike all previous speculation, this is on the record and cannot be denied or retracted. And although they attempt to portray the move as a unifying move, it is clearly nothing of the sort. During the afternoon there has been an embarrassing sgortage of senior MPs and cabinet ministers willing to express their support for Brown.

So what will Labour MPs do? There’s hardly been a stampede of support for the PM. Will colleagues express support for the H2 letter, support for Brown or stay silent and hope it all goes away? The latter is of course the action that Labour MPs have been taking for the past few years, so they have had plenty of experience at it. It is also exactly what Gordon Brown has done, bottling an election or two and backing down on policy decisions made previously when any opposition is expressed.

Mark Thompson thinks this is the last chance to get rid of Brown. I think he’s wrong – that chance has been and gone. Like their leader, Labour MPs have bottled it too many times and now it’s just too late, both to act or for any action to have its desired effect. And besides, who would take over? No future leadership contender would want to blot their copybook with a potentially huge seat and vote loss at the next election. It would make William Hague’s time as Conservative leader look like a roaring success.

Even if Brown does find an excuse to step down, I cannot see it doing Labour any good in the eyes of the electorate. It is not just Brown that is damaged goods, but all his merry men and women. At 12:15 today, when Brown sat down after defeating Cameron in today’s PMQ’s joust, he might have thought that he was in with a chance. By 12.32, all that optimism had vanished into the distance.

What Hoon and Hewitt, two leading Blairites, have done is to further discredit Blairism and new Labour with the Labour membership. The 1990s fair-weather members have long gone and the more traditionally minded rump of supporters would not be sorry to see Blair dropped into the memory holes of Millbank. Darrel Goodliffe puts his finger on the issue, saying ‘It’s quite clear to me that the Blairites within it are perfectly willing to ‘destroy the village’ in order to save it in their eyes. No doubt it will not be long before they themselves feel the heat.’

The latest, but certainly not the last fascinating fact is that both ITN and Mike Smithsonare reporting that Harriet Harman is behind the letter. The arch-Blairite herself and of course an old friend of Patricia Hewitt. Hopefully whatever else happens, this will have kiboshed her chance of the Labour leadership.

And finally, if Labour politicians think that there should be a secret ballot on whether Gordon Brown remains as Prime Minister, couldn’t they do it the traditional way – and hold a General Election, so the other 60 million of us can have a say?

Whilst digesting the news and its implications, the words of one of Carole King’s best songs kept running through my mind. I think it’s lyrics are a reflection of the current zeitgeist of the Labour Party and its relationship with Gordon Brown.

Stayed in bed all mornin’ just to pass the time
There’s somethin’ wrong here, there can by no denyin’
One of us is changin’, or maybe we just stopped tryin’.

And it’s too late baby, now it’s too late, though we really did try to make it
Something inside has died and I can’t hide and I just can’t fake it.

It used to be so easy livin’ here with you
You were light and breezy and I knew just what to do
Now you look so unhappy and I feel like a fool.

There’ll be good times again for me and you
But we just can’t stay together, dont’cha feel it too?
Still I’m glad for what we had, and how I once loved you.

Related posts:

1. The sorcerer's apprentice
2. Gordon’s real problem is his cowardice
3. Does the Manchester Labour Party believe Gordon Brown is fit to be in Parliament?