The Monday morning blog - Labour's divided weekend

I am currently on the train heading to London. This ticket cost me an arm and a leg as it is an open ticket. I suppose this is the return leg. Ho ho! Anyway, I am on a National Express service on which nothing has gone wrong. That in itself is newsworthy.

And so to the weekend of Labour's divisions. Milliband's article last week has been taken as the launch of his leadership bid. Despite his protestations otherwise, that is what it is. Indeed his claims that he is not waiting in the wings to pounce look like the biggest work of fiction since canoeists took to the beach at Seaton Carew. He knew that writing an article about the way forward for Labour in the febrile atmosphere currently being endured would be seen as nothing else. The fact he did this suggests to me that Millipede thinks that Brown's time is probably up.

The response from his Cabinet colleagues however was interesting. The cabal of Slippery Straw, The Lady Harriet and John Who? Denham rushing around the tv studios announcing their undying love for Brown who must, must, must continue as Labour's leader as he is the only person who can get the country through the economic crisis, is a sure sign that Brown is in deep trouble and is in the brown stuff up to his neck.

It seems as though many Cabinet members are preparing an anyone-but-Millipede candidate. They probably don't need to. Despite Blair being the most successful Labour leader in history, I see no appetite for a new Leader who is so thoroughly identified with the ancien regime.

And all this presupposes Brown's prime ministership is about to die. Straw, Milliband, Balls, even the awful Lady Harriet are sitting there like vultures, waiting for Brown's leadership to die. Yet none of them have the balls to stick in the knife. And I don't expect Brown to jump on his sword. He will do everything needed to cling to power. The vultures may go hungry for some time to come.

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