The Unsinkable Gordon Brown

He's riding along on the crest of a wave. The unsinkable Gordon Brown better make the most of it. The Glenrothes Massacre is just around the corner. Will Vince Cable ride in to save the day for Labour?

Brown has lived to fight another day because of the financial "crisis". He has been saved by the economic mess of his own making.     

Only a few months ago, Brown was more unpopular than Hitler. Now he's saving the country from economic doom, global warming and malaria. How times change. 

One thing is certain. In the cunning world of Brown politics, he has the interest of one thing at heart - his own survival and that of his beloved New Labour Project. 

The economic "crisis" couldn't have come at a better time. One could be forgiven for thinking it was all planned with immaculate timing. 

A true Labour rebellion melted away during the summer. A Blairite challenge evaporated a few weeks ago. Cameron, spitting blood during the Tory Party conference, turned into Cameron soft soaping Brown during PMQs. Cable no longer shoots from the hip. No-one is prepared to put their head above the parapet.

But it won't last. And Brown and his new team of political spin doctors and plumbers know this.

For the moment, all eyes are on the doomed £500 billion bank bail-out, where the devil is in the detail. But even that will be short-lived. Brown needs a few more tricks up his sleeve if he is to survive. 

He's already started, with a regional tour to explain just why he's risking billions of pounds of taxpayers cash to prop up the City. That tour could well end up in his own backyard - Glenrothes.

The sticking point is Darling, a man clearly out of his depth. Likely replacements come from the two Eds. But Balls is too hated, Miliband too young.

Westminster speculation centres on the popular and respected LibDem economist, Vincent Cable, brought in as chancellor - a government of all the people. 

Cable and Brown share a long history together going back to the Labour leadership under John Smith. Time to cast aside Party politics and all that. And time to totally wrong-foot the Tories and SNP.

This has never been about putting the best interests of people first. This is about Brown's survival, New Labour's survival. Trying to out manoeuvre Cameron's Conservatives in England and Salmond's SNP in Scotland. 

A week is a long time in politics - four weeks is a lifetime. Anything other than a New Labour victory in Glenrothes and the unsinkable Gordon Brown will have to go down with his ship.