Daily View: Leadership challenge
Politics bloggers try to make sense of a a day of drama in which two ex-Cabinet ministers called for a secret ballot of Labour MPs to decide on Gordon Brown's leadership.
In his money on Gordon Brown going the distance:
"Whatever your feelings about him you have to admire the extraordinary resilience of Gordon Brown. Will he be there on general election day? Most probably."
the challenge brought out support for Brown:
"Fair to say the news I caught was a bit of a disaster for the party, after what has been a better than expected start to the year in terms of getting stuck in a bit more to the Tories. It has also had the inevitable effect of making people come out and state their support for GB, somewhat defeating the object I'd have thought. I've seen the wave of support for GB on Twitter and Facebook from Labour activists, and it has been very encouraging. If it was a plot, it did not appear to be a very deep one."
Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon should ballot party members instead of ministers:
"Can I suggest they go back to their constituency parties, put their views, let them have a secret ballot, and then they'll know the results. After all, are not ordinary party members worth it?"
this is proof the Labour party has become a "farce":
"If Labour MPs cannot decide whether or not they have confidence in their party's leader, why on earth do they think the British people can be expected to have confidence in their leadership?"
to challenge Gordon Brown laughable:
"Tweedle-Who? and Tweedle-Hoon concocted a plot so comically useless that it seems possible that the only question is whether it will be remembered for its stupidity or its ineptitude."
the context:
"The irony here is that despite everything, Gordon Brown may well be on the verge of some relatively Happy Days, at least for himself.
There's a big date circled in the Number 10 calendar, and it's also circled by George Osborne's closest aides. Tuesday 26 January 2010. On that day, we will get official confirmation that the recession is over."
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