Brown's Comeuppance On Party Politics

Brown's defence, when anyone or anything gets in his small-minded, arrogant way, is to accuse everyone else of playing party politics. And that started to stick in the throat. Shouting down dissident voices not playing his game stifled debate. The government is playing party politics with no interest in the country - only saving their own election skins. Today Cameron refused to take it lying down.

At last, Cameron put clear blue water between the Parties, promising his Conservatives will abandon the government's ridiculous spending plans. That takes a brave soul, knowing the political risks and backlash from New Labour supporting politicians and media.

But it's the Tories who can now accuse Brown of playing party politics, as every shred of government waste and drop of further borrowing will come under healthy opposition scrutiny.

Attacks on shadow chancellor, George Osborne, have been relentless, sparked by the Corfu scandal. Mandleson was in the frame, yet with neat footwork, spinners turned the tables and, with the BBC's help, it was Osborne who was held up as the baddy and much of  the media swallowed it hook line and stinker. 

But that was never about Osborne. It was an attack on Cameron and the whole Tory Party, with the deputy prime minister working hard behind the scenes.

While doing his job and urging caution on the economy, Brown rounded on Osborne, while swanning around Washington, accusing the opposition spokesman of party politics. For the government, Osborne was clearly doing his job too well. 

Brown was lovin' it, spending his time helping Bush dig himself out of a hole and prop up his legacy, having his picture taken at every opportunity. All with the help of BBC News and its slavish support for borrowing Brown's disastrous economic recipe.  Now that's party politics. 

Brown managed to pull off all party support for his economic measures for a while. Until the Tories and LibDems cottoned on to the con. 

They were being drawn into a reckless government borrowing plan, doomed to failure with disastrous consequences. 

Brown, forever the crafty politician, could turn round and claim their support when it all went pear-shaped. Both Parties have now seen the light. 

The Baby P case and the damning indictment of both the council and government is a shameful example, with Brown having the bare faced cheek to accuse Cameron of playing party politics during his inhuman commons performance. 

From the beginning this was all about New Labour party politics and Brown set that tone. 

This is a Labour-run council, slavishly following New Labour's failed ideals and policies. One of its MPs, David Lammy, is a rising New Labour star. And the buck stops in government, with Ed Balls' stalinist, over bearing and overreaching mega department, trying to deflect criticism and claim the moral and political high ground. 

Nothing stands in the way of Brown spin. Conflicting opinion polls add to confusion. Push polls are becoming commonplace. Polls can be seized upon to mean anything to anybody.

On the economy, the government is preparing the ground for Brown's Christmas giveaways and preparing the ground for a cut and run spring election. 

One by one, minor irritations which could cause more of a slump in popularity are dropped or shelved. 42 days has gone by the wayside and a U-turn over Post Office card contracts. Troop withdrawal from Iraq, a major obstacle in public opinion, will be sorted out by the spring.

Only a few months back, Brown was facing political annihilation. Then he was the come-back kid. But a tide of popular opinion didn't turn in Brown's favour. 

True Labour rebels were bought off with weak promises and put back in their box. The Blairite rebellion was neatly side-stepped when Mandleson was forced to escape from EU corruption allegations to the safe haven of the UK government. Bringing with him his army of battle-scarred spin doctors.

Voices of dissent are swiftly labelled "right-wing" to play up the party politics card. But the Orange Party ain't right wing. Nor are others who've seen through the sham. And neither is Bremner, Bird or Fortune, whose damning exposure of the economic sham on C4, uses Tony Benn as the voice of reason. 

The voice of sense and sensibility is getting through and that's deeply disturbing for a government desperately trying to cling onto power. But capture the media and, in a Blair move,  you capture the argument and public opinion. 

Slowly some traditionally troublesome media are being picked off. BBC News was a pushover and now firmly a government propaganda mouthpiece. The Mail was once in Brown's pocket, or the other way round. The Telegraph often reads like the Labourgraph. ConservativeHome is a trolls playground. The Murdoch stable will latch on to whatever the boss thinks will sell more newspapers. 

And where does all this lead? The government will try to cling on to power to the bitter end. But events, particularly economic ones and rising unemployment, will turn nasty next year and into 2010 and that would be a very bitter end. Brown and New Labour can't take that risk. 

So it's a spring election with a desperate need for a fresh mandate to wreck the economy and people's lives even further. 

It's been party politics all along since the summer. An endless round of party political broadcasts in the phoney war, on behalf of Brown and the New Labour Party.