Brown Down But Is He Out?

Battered Brown returns from the peace of his self-inflicted exile to face the wrath of the commons and the country as his power ebbs away. Is he really that well-prepared to take the flak? 

All around him ministers old and new jockey for position, trying to come up smelling of roses but power would have to be prised from Brown's cold dead fingers.

Events in politics have a nasty habit of turning up when you least expect them but when the events are of your own making something is seriously, masochistically wrong. 

The media frenzy over swine flu which has captured the headlines will soon abate and the Supreme Leader will return to being the cunning political fighter he is, living and breathing ways to wrong-foot the Tories. It's in his blood. Clinging on to the bitter end until someone or something forces him out. And even then it won't be his fault. 

But the U-turns are coming thick and fast from all quarters. The Blair boys are on the march again. That's good for ministers past and present who have an eye on the main prize but seriously bad for Brown. 

The deluded prime minister has only himself to blame. 

Suddenly popping up in Pakistan after hiding away in Camp Bastian is no way to run a country still reeling from the fantasy budget. Not content with a snub from the Pakistan president, he's popped up in Poland to be given a resounding no to his economic masterplan by the Polish prime minister. 

What's needed in times of recession depression is a trusted hand on the economic tiller not someone playing at commander in-chief. 

Brown's half-baked car crash TV plan for the MPs allowances scandal ended in tears, as he was forced to abandon the not so bright and dim idea to pay MPs a fat cat bonus for turning up to work yet he is still trying to push through a half-baked solution. 

But just where did this silly scheme come from? Who's idea was it to throw caution and democracy to the wind and make him look a complete fool on YouTube? 

While the prime minister was far away in La-La Land, have a go Harman came up with her own brand of political posturing and a daft plan for her pet equality project. Fine for the boom years but not quite what is needed during a biting recession.

The New Labour elite is doing what it always does in times of trouble - trying to feather its own nest and tear itself apart in the never ending story of the battle of the Browns and the Blairs. 

And boy are the Blairites crawling out of the woodwork, all in the name of Progress. 

Already former cabinet minister Stephen Byers is denouncing the Brown/Darling's tax rise plan as an "elephant trap". Health secretary Johnson is pushing himself forward as the down to earth voice of reassurance which belies his despised Blair credentials. 

Now former home secretary, David Blunkett, says the government should scrap plans to introduce ID cards, former Blair hitman John Reid is back in the frame, if you believe anything you read in the sad old Mirror and Charles Clarke is sticking the boot in Brown over the MPs' expenses row with his usual two penneth. 

Blairites brief against Brownites. Brownie against Blairites, with Balls leading the smearing pack and the country is left to the dogs.

The only saving grace in the recent days shenanigans has been justice minister, Jack Straw, who at least had the good grace to come to the house of commons to announce plans to scrap the wasteful and scary Titan prisons and earn himself a few brownie points. 

Two homes secretary Smith couldn't be bothered, making do with a written statement but still back-tracking on her Big Sister plans for a big computer to prying into all our emails and website visits. Not keen to go to the commons but all over the media like a rash.

That all leaves Brown high and hung out to dry but he still doesn't get it.  

The Labour Party died with John Smith, highjacked by a bunch of chancers, the Gang of Four kept the brand going by the superb showmanship of Blair, sinister spin of Campbell, shifty skulduggery of Mandelson and political strategy of Gould, all propped up with a smattering of crafty accounting by Brown who was never really one of the gang. Without smiley Blair up front it was doomed.  And the boys are all back in town.

New Labour has survived through a mixture of arrogance and its own self-delusion. Convincing itself with the rhetoric that it was indeed ‘The People's Party’, it has taken its eye off the political ball and lost its way, while true Labour buried its head in the sand and went along for the ride. 

The Labour Party is now so shallow but that won't stop it drowning in its own puddle.

The Tories are biding their time waiting in the wings as the government-in-waiting. Regardless of party politics, Cameron is right on one very important pronouncement - New Labour has simply been in power far too long.

The Balls' in Brown's court but it seems his ex-treasury side-kick is among the few who is.  

The test of Brown's authority will come on Thursday when MP's vote on what's left of his muddled expenses non-solution.