Green Shoots Of A Snap Election?

Billy-no-mates Brown and his greedy chancers have sunk to a new low in the polls. The latest MPs' expenses shock leaves many searching for green shoots of a snap election.

There's no end in sight for the long-suffering public as the greedy, the arrogant and the downright criminal try to cling on to power to the bitter end.

It's rock and roll as greedy government ministers are back in the firing line of the shameful expenses scandal which has rocked Westminster to its core and left the public rolling in disgust.

Shamed justice minister Shahid Malik is revealed to be running up the highest second homes expenses claim of any MP amounting to £66,827 over three years and renting his main home from a "convicted slum landlord". Former cabinet minister Clare Short is up to her neck too after she wrongly claimed more than £8,000 in parliamentary expenses.

Malik is sitting tight churning out the tired old mantra that he's done nothing wrong, claiming the Telegraph's expenses-based report that he paid only £100 a week in rent on his "main home" in his Dewsbury constituency was a "fabrication". Short says it was all a mistake.

Apologies and bleatings about the rules, even whipping out the chequebook were so yesterday's news. Just have the guts to quit your cushy number and give the public a rest from the endless drivel.

Force the worst culprits to quit. Force a by-election. Put our money where their mouth is and if they are so bent on serving the public, stand as an Independent without the Party comfy cushion. Fat chance.

On the day when the rotten expenses scandal claimed its first scalps with ex-minister Elliot Morley suspended from the Party and Tory aide Andrew Mackay quitting over their expenses fiddles, the Downing Street spinners had the cheek to release a nasty, violent Party Election broadcast to frighten the children.

Some sharp-suited guy beating hell out of a punch bag blaming everything on that "Cameron". So much for Brown's bleatings about reducing everything to personality not policy.

Meanwhile bunkered, blinkered, bull-boy Brown and his New Labour bunch have slumped to its lowest polling level in history.

If Brown's ministers needed any reminding of the damage MPs expenses is having on parliament and democracy, the sensational YouGov poll for the Sun, putting New Labour on just 22%, Tories on 42% and LibDems on 19, says it all.

But with such a disastrous showing in the polls and ministers exposed in relentless expenses revelations, would they be that suicidal to give up their cushy Westminster number with a snap election?

The nightmare on Downing Street needs a major miracle if the named and shamed think they can close the gap to a Tory single digit lead over the next six miserable months.

Westminster has already been engulfed in Smeargate and the rotting carcass of MPs expenses. Events always have a nasty habit of turning up when you least expect them.

Cameron has his own cross to bear with UKIP, but Brown and New Labour will be Euro trashed. Calls for a change in leadership won't be far behind. A reshuffle soon after is on the cards as Brown plays his last card. But the country and constitution have no stomach for yet another unelected prime minister.

For born-again Brown, his salvation lies in the lies of the economy and whether the country will recover from the recession depression which is his election obsession. Will it be U-shaped, V-shaped, W-shaped or pear-shaped. That depends on which economic forecast takes your fancy.

Clearing the air of the rotten stench with a general election is the only solution. Looking in vain for green shoots is not a forlorn hope. The signs are there if you look hard enough.

A vote of no confidence in the national disgrace of a commons speaker and New Labour crony Martin is getting closer and stronger. A shamed minister could do the honourable thing for a change and quit as an MP, forcing a by-election and forcing Brown's hand. Knacker of the Yard or the Mail crusade could do the job for them.

Mandy's private Mail plan could deliver another commons defeat with a backbench revolt. In the Lords, two New Labour cronies face suspension for the first time since the English Revolution.

The Brown government is toast. In a lose-lose situation the pressure will be relentless. Along with the government, the long-suffering public need some hope of green shoots to cling on to. But only one plant will survive, the other will wither and die.

UPDATE 11.45am: Malik has quit as justice minister pending an expenses inquiry.

Top picture: Sun, Lower graphic: Martin Day