Brown Is Busted, Get Used To It

Bunkered Brown has run out of time and options. His days at Downing Street are doomed. He's pinning his hopes on pulling a rabbit out of the hat and shuffling the Titanic deck chairs. But there's no plain sailing for a sinking ship. 

If the rabbit turns into a chipmunk and no-one wants to play musical chairs, bunkered Brown is busted. He better get used to it. 

At Westminster all eyes and ears are on Big Ben when the clock strikes 10. Votes will be cast and the die is cast for Brown. Alea iacta est. The next frenzied 24 hours will be a long time in politics.

The Chipmunk scurried back to Salford to spend more time with her expenses after delivering battered Brown a killer blow on the eve of elections. Public humiliation without having the guts to sack her has left the sisterhood seething. A Revenge Of The Chipmunk may be on the cards sticking  the knife in the ex-Supreme Leader.

The backbench revolt is real enough no matter how Mandy tries to spin it otherwise. Brown's fate was sealed by the angry Parliamentary Labour Party who have had enough of a Party leader who doesn't give a toss about them. 

Rebels may well have a cause as they try to gather more than the magic 70 signatures to force a leadership challenge. But the cyber plot of an email doing the rounds to oust the once Dear Leader is a waste of time. There's no need. Mortally wounded, Brown is toast. 

The Orange Party well remembers other letters doing the rounds. They usually don't come to much. A useful seed but little else. The plan is to undermine the PM so much that a top dog will pull the rug from under him.

All the usual suspects are there. Clarke, Byers and Milburn. Once again, there's talk of a 'stalking horse' joining with the rebels to force a contest and stick the knife in. 

But all this mindless manoeuvring is pointless. Beleaguered Brown's fate was sealed by the PLP and Guardian calling on the Party to cut him loose. With friends like that you don't need enemies. 

Disastrous results from today's local and Euro elections are a side-show but they will provide the catalyst for the end-game as Brown is finally forced to face up to reality and admit the game is up. 

The sheer chaos sparked by the MPs' expenses scandal and blind panic over disastrous poll ratings says it all. The government is falling to bits.

The end can only come come at cabinet-level. Pre-emptive strikes by two homes secretary Smith and rocking the boat Blears sent a clear message that the time is up. Out of the chaos a whole raft of challenges have popped up. When the authority of a prime minister is undermined to such an extent it really is time to spend more time with his family. 

The key lies in the once vaunted reshuffle. Flammed up by Downing Street as part of born-again-Brown to re-assert his authority. it was all designed to give the government breathing space and a new lease of life to cling on ahead of the inevitable general election. 

But it's all too late. Brown should have struck while the expenses iron was hot. Two of those earmarked for the sack to show his 'strong leadership' have now gone. His chancellor and foreign secretary don't want to budge. If they are forced out, chances are they would rather quit the cabinet leaving another direct challenge to Brown's authority. 

Brown is not in the business of promoting his enemies to stop the plotting but the neat solution to entice back Blair bruiser John Reid with the poisoned chalice of the home office again fell on deaf ears. Promoting his henchman Balls to the treasury would sign his political suicide note to the PLP and the country. 

It's looking increasingly likely that Brown simply cannot carry out a major reshuffle and that leaves him a dead duck.

The option left is to refuse to budge with the backing of His Master's Voice Balls and the tight cabal of Downing Street cronies in it for the lust of power and glory. Then trying to prise him out clinging on by his fingernails is hugely difficult for MPs or ministers. 

But then a prime minister's power and support simply melts away with a government in meltdown. 

Meanwhile the long-suffering public are angry and fed-up with MPs' expenses and desperate for a general election. Instead they have to put up with the charade of petty power politics. Only through a Euro election and a Middle Earth battle in the English shires can they make their views known at the ballot box. 

But use their vote they must. If only to pick someone who will fight tooth and nail for a referendum on the disgraceful Lisbon Treaty and someone who isn't in it for themselves to feather their nest as the next Euro millionaire on the EU gravy trail. That narrows the field somewhat. 

Mid Picture: Blears "Rocking The Boat" shipwreck brooch 

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Mighty Wind Cuts Through Brown Crap

Fear and loathing of Brown's rotting government are being exposed in a raft of devastating indictments delivered with a welcome breath of fresh air. As the rotten stench which lies at the heart of government is rounded on in unprecedented attacks of unity, the lies, deceit and downright dishonesty are finally being laid bare. But it has taken a mighty mistral wind to cut through all the Brown crap.

The discredited New Labour project is dead but it won't lie down. And that underpins the dilemma facing the fag-end of a government as the deluded prime minister looks set to implode. How can you round on Brown without destroying the brand?

But some are starting to have a jolly good go. They have no choice. 

Ministers, payroll MPs and their cronies know the game is up. Faced with the now certain outcome of a ballot box wipe-out, years of power will come to an end and with them go the Common Purpose cronies who've been stuffed into the huge wasteful quangoland, used to underpin and support a decade of deceit. 

Exposing Brown will expose the deceit and spin of the Blair years project but it's a chance they have to take.

The Orange Party has never subscribed to the argument of some political commentators who polarise battles into simplistic left and right politics. At the heart though is the rotting stench of spin and corruption at the heart of number 10. 

Writing in the Mail, Peter Oborne, one of the first to expose the political lying machine and one of last men standing to lose all faith in Brown, is now calling on Gordon to do the decent thing and sit down with a whisky and revolver:  

"Nothing can save Gordon Brown: So, who will hand Brown the loaded revolver and bottle of whisky?" Like Oborne, the Orange Party reckons that could come from Mandy's smoking gun. 

Love them or loath them, the game is up for the gang of chancers who after the shambles of the social democrat's Gang of Four" in the 1980s hadn't the guts to form their own party.  Instead they highjacked an off-the peg political movement which used to be called the Labour Party. 

And that's the disgrace which is coming back to haunt those who were taken in by the spin, those who just went along for the ride and those who now feel ashamed, running around, just  plain scared. 

One social democrat "Gang of Four" of Jenkins, Owen, Rodgers and Williams came and scurried off with their tails between their legs to their true Liberal home. 

Another "Gang of Four" of Blair, Campbell, Mandleson and Gould shoe-horned into its place, with Brown brought along to cook the books. 

Now blind panic from Blairites reveal their true social democrat colours, as more crawl out of the woodwork to condemn Brown's government and look to the LibDems for sanctuary. 

Spun as a fear that the Party could lurch to the 'left', it's more a fear that the bunch of cronies who highjacked the Party will be exposed as a bunch of crooks and thrown out on their ears. 

The worm has turned. Guardianista pseudo-liberals in the shape of Blair babe Polly Toynbee who once heaped praised on Brown now bleats it's: 'Gordon Brown: no ideas and no regrets': 

"Under his leadership Labour has become a rotten, defeatist rabble ... Many said he had neither the temperament nor the political skills for the top job. I was among those who hoped he had, because you have to live in hope.”  

But the most powerful indictment of Brown and Downing Street comes from author Nick Cohen's polemic in the social affairs magazine Standpoint, as New Labour's 12th anniversary in power is marked: 

"A movement that was committed to the democratic modernisation of Britain has imposed a Prime Minister who has not won a mandate at a general election nor secured for himself the smaller but still significant legitimacy that comes from fighting a contested leadership election within his own party. "

Writing about the 'Fear and Filth at Brown's Number 10', Cohen is not for the faint hearted but should be required reading for everyone from all colours of the political spectrum: 

"The only true suffering Brown has inflicted is on Britain's idea of itself ... we accept a PM who achieved power not through the ballot box but by bullying his critics and rivals. As with any other bully, all it would take to stop him is for his opponents to call his bluff. That for years hardly any have, says more about us than it does about him. "

Cohen finds few friends in the New Labour media elite as he rumbles their cushy and cosy world. 

But many of the comments to Cohen's article feel it was like a breath of fresh air. The Orange Party goes further. His mighty healthy mistral wind cuts through the crap of a stinking Brown summer. 

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No Confidence Vote Could Bring Down Brown

Pressure on Beleaguered Brown is mounting with calls to apologise for 'Smeargate' from both Tories and New Labour ranks. A commons 'no confidence' vote would purge the lies, deceit and spin eating away at the heart of a rotten government.

Furious Cameron is demanding a personal apology from Brown. Members of the decent Labour Party have rounded on the corrupt Downing Street black ops spin machine. Any shred of credibility left in ministers and their band of cronies has been destroyed.

The Tory leader is said to be "absolutely furious" after more details were revealed today of a disgraceful Tory sex smear campaign at the heart of Number Ten which led to one of Brown's closest aides being forced to quit.

A leading back-bench Labour MP today added his voice of disgust at the dirty tricks outrage, placing Brown as Party leader in a precarious position.

A personal apology is the least the Tory leader should expect. But that should be made to the house of commons. A vote of confidence would have to follow.

Cameron is calling on Brown to give a guarantee that such messages will not be sent again. Anyone who thinks this will end New Labour spin is living in fool's paradise.

Blair's spin doctor Campbell is in regular contact with Brown. Whelan, now head of press at the union Unite, is back in the fold and was copied in emails between McPoison and New Labour's Dolly Draper.

With spinmaster Mandleson lurking in the shadows, that can only lead to more dirty tricks and dark ops in the weeks to come. To argue that Brown knew nothing is laughable.

During his time in Downing Street, Brown's attack dog McBride did the job he was expected to do. Brown may not have been in on the detail but certainly he would be aware of the broad outline of the cunning pre-election plan. After all, that is why taxpayer-funded toe-rags like civil servant McBride are hired.

The smear campaign has been spun by Number Ten as a "juvenile and inappropriate" prank by two blokes. A pathetic attempt at damage limitation to play down the seriousness of the spin operation at the heart of the fag-end of a rancid government spinning out of control.

The dirty tricks campaign to smear top Tories, including Cameron, was exposed by top political blogger, Paul Staines, author of the Guido Fawkes blog. But it's not just the Tories who are furious. The rank and file Labour Party has had to suffer the lies and spin of the New Labour brand for over a decade.

Labour backbench MP, John McDonnell, today called on Brown to launch an independent inquiry into who was involved: "Smear tactics like this are not the Labour way ... They drag the Labour Party into the gutter." LibDems too are up in arms.

Deluded Brown stands alone. His cover has been blown. He would do well to remember the unpopular Callaghan government's defeat on 28 March 1979. Then the commons passed a motion of 'no confidence' by one vote — 311-310 — which forced Callaghan to call a general election, ushering in the Thatcher years.

Only last June, Brown escaped the 42 days vote by the skin of his political teeth in a mixture of pork-barrel politics and support of Northern Ireland's DUP when the government scraped through by just nine votes - exactly the number of MPs from Northern Ireland who voted for the draconian measures.

With a united front of Tory, LibDem and back-bench Labour MPs, a 'no confidence' vote would place the Brown's government on a knife edge.

The full blown political row has dealt a bitter blow for Brown, after one of his most senior aides, Damian McBride, dubbed McPoison, was fingered by Staines over emails discussing possible smear stories about Tory MPs, sent to New Labour blogger, Derek Draper to be used on a scurrilous New Labour pre-election website, 'Red Rag'.

Once again, the spinner became the story and McBride was toast. The more they spun, the deeper the hole.

Brown famously forced his way into Number 10 in 2007 declaring an end to the culture of spin that had dogged the Blair years. No-one believed him then as McPoison followed closely behind. No-one believes him now. A slow drip of poison will continue under a horse with a different colour.

All political parties have their attack dogs. All get up to dirty tricks of one sort or another. That's politics. And all do their upmost to shield their boss from any damage.

Now a general election is round the corner. For the first time in the UK, political bloggers will be a powerful and influential force.

Trying to beef up existing New Labour-supporting blogs and launch new ones are part and parcel of that phoney war campaign.

But New Labour ministers and cronies cannot get it into their arrogant skulls just why so many blogs seem to be 'Tory supporting'.

The Orange Party, a relative new kid on the political blogging block, certainly isn't Tory supporting per se, its politics are left-leaning. But like so many voters it is just fed up to the back teeth with a decade of the discredited New Labour brand and the arrogance of lies, spin and deceit.

That raises the issue of confidence among the voters and that should raise the issue of confidence in Brown in the house of commons.

Throw in the toxic scandal of ministers' second homes fiddles and Brown and his fag-end of a government is doomed, however long New Labour tries to cling onto power.

Picture: What did Brown know and when did he know it? McPoison and the Supreme Leader in happier spinning days

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A Rotten Government Spinning Out Of Control

More details are due to be revealed tomorrow of a disgraceful Tory smear campaign at the heart of Number Ten which has led to one of Brown's closest aides forced to quit a rotten government spinning out of control.

The Downing Street dirty tricks campaign to smear top Tories, including leader David Cameron, was exposed by one of the country's top political bloggers, Paul Staines, author of the Guido Fawkes political blog.

The smear campaign has been spun by Number Ten as a "juvenile and inappropriate" prank by two blokes in a pathetic attempt at damage limitation and to play down the seriousness of the spin operation at the heart of a fag-end of a government.

But a full blown political row dealt a bitter blow for Brown, when one of his most senior aides, Damian McBride, was fingered by Staines over emails discussing possible smear stories about Tory MPs, sent to New Labour blogger, Derek Draper to be used on a scurrilous New Labour pre-election website, 'Red Rag'.

Staines had alleged a Downing Street operation, co-ordinated by McBride tried to smear Conservative MPs, including lurid and totally unfounded allegations about the private lives of David Cameron and George Osborne.

Some of the smears, due to be published in tomorrow's News of the World, are revealed here by the Sunday Times. The Tories have already confirmed that David Cameron and his wife Samantha, George Osborne and MP Nadine Dorries, are among the targets.

But in a toxic mixture of deceit and spin, Downing Street today tried to play down 'Smeargate' as spinners tried on the tactic of a political battle between 'left' and 'right' when it's nothing of the sort.

Claims on Guido Fawkes and Twitter also point the finger at minister for digital engagement, Tom Watson, who denied involvement. SpAds and spinners are one thing, a government minister, quite another.

A Downing Street spokesman said it was Brown's view there was "no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind."

But that's rich coming from the man who promised a new era of politics and vowed to put an end to the spin and SpAd culture which had dogged Blair and discredited the New Labour brand.

The allegations, which detail a smear campaign against various Tory politicians, were due to be exposed by one of the Sunday newspapers.

But, in what appears to be a spoiler and pre-emptive strike, the claims featured on the front page of today's Daily Telegraph.

Downing Street initially tried to hold the line and issued a statement saying McBride has apologised but the writing was on the wall as Downing Street's rapid rebuttal unit worked overtime.

The BBC pushed the Brown and the Downing Street line playing up the apology and playing down the seriousness of the affair with the toe-rag McBride being given the oxygen of air-time to drip more McPoison.

To spin this as some kind of 'juvenile and inappropriate' prank by one person in Downing Street is bollocks.

Spinners also tried the tactic of accusing Guido of money grabbing, claims which he strenuously denies: "Not a penny is changing hands. This is for pleasure, not profit."

McBride, dubbed McPoison, who has worked for Brown for many years, is well-known for downright devious briefings to journalists.

At the heart too is a long-running cyber-spat between Guido and Draper, a former spin doctor to the spinmaster Mandelson, who runs a weedy apology for a political blog Labourlist, as part of the 'Go Forth And Multiply' New Labour gang.

What is highly embarrassing for Number 10 is that its spinners and plumbers are spending their time obsessing about how they can smear the opposition with the politics of character assassination, rather than doing the job they are paid to do by the taxpayers. And that is trying to advise ministers on how best to run the country.

No political party of whatever colour is whiter than white when it comes to the dark arts of political dirty tricks, from Richard 'Tricky Dicky' Nixon in the US through to the Campbell and Mandleson spin of the Blair years.

But these sordid smears do reveal the increasing significance of the political blogsphere which is becoming a powerful political voice and the main forum for political debate, as is already the case in the US.

Once again, the problem comes when the spinner becomes the story. McBride is toast, Draper must surely follow. The more they spin, the deeper the hole.

The healthy UK blogsphere will become more important in the run-up to the general election as Downing Street spinners are all too well aware.

The Orange Party has pointed out before this arrogant bunch of chancers don't like it up 'em, and expects more of their dirty tricks, lies and downright deceit in the weeks to come.

Staines aka Guido has done a magnificent job exposing this particular New Labour brand of nastiness at the heart of a rotten government - but he should be careful about going for long walks alone in the woods.

Picture: Happier spinning days - McBride (left) and Draper (right)

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Queen Used As Pawn In Chess Game Spin

Her Maj has been thrust into the spotlight, in a move which smacks of breathtaking spinning, as Beleaguered Brown fights for his political survival and the headlines get worse for him by the day. The Orange Party is usually happy to go along for a spin on happy fridays but this really takes the right royal biscuit.

King is running the economy, the Queen is running the State and the prime minister is just running around.

So today of all days it's revealed Brown and the Palace have discussed plans to change the rules of succession to the throne, including giving royal women equal rights.

Some MPs today launched a bid to bring in changes by reforming the 1701 Act of Settlement but the government has said time and again it would not support this particular MPs’ move, though the prime minister wants “progress” on the issue.

Back in 2005, with an election round the corner, that very issue of the monarchy was raised.

Then Downing Street told the BBC: "We don't believe in any change to the present system and this is not an issue that has been raised in any significant form during our National Policy Forum consultation process or during The Big Conversation."

Nothing much has changed, so why the big deal now? Could it be anything to do with drawing attention away from the Brown mess and his pointless trip to South America?

The tactics worked a treat. Brown's Brazillian briefing, that he's had talks with the Queen, neatly diverted the baying press hounds from savaging his deluded Save The World tour.

Meanwhile more troops are poised to be sent to the hopeless new Vietnam war in Afghanistan. There's further signs today the economy is in ruins and Brown's G20 vanity summit is turning into a pointless, expensive and increasingly dangerous charade.

There is a huge debate to be had over constitutional issues and indeed the whole future of the monarchy.

Politicians on all sides should be free to debate, particularly as some believe it is an anachronism in a modern, democratic society.

But most MPs don't want to stick their head above the parapet right now, with an election around the corner and an eye on their constituents and their seats.

There is a time to get it out in the open and have a proper discussion about a modern monarchy but now is neither the time nor the place.

Stick it in the manifesto and see how that plays out with voters.

Picture: Private Eye 1998

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Real Spin Behind 'Real Help Now'

The most shameful and blatant party political propaganda has surfaced with the government using taxpayers cash to prop up its discredited economic policies on another of its websites. 

Billed as the 'recovery' website, Brown referred to the launch of  Real Help Now  as the cabinet met for one of its carefully managed and highly controlled 'hide from the people' jollies, this time in Southampton.

The Orange Party first thought this was a joke. One of those silly little sites dreamt up by the Go Forth and Multiply gang. But it's an official site with the Crown logo of HM Government with nowhere to challenge misleading and highly spun statements. 

Needless to say the site has already been given the usual free puff by pals at the BBC: "No 10 confirmed the site's launch, saying the idea behind it was to enable people to find details of all the support it was giving workers, employers and homeowners in one place".

That of course justifies the taxpayers cash as thinly disguised party political propaganda is dressed up as public information.

It's easy to scratch the surface to see what is the real motive behind 'Real Help Now'. It's positively drooling with positive spin.

Full of puffs for the government and its ministers, it includes of course the obligatory Brownspeak message of how it's everyones fault but his own for the economic mess.

The website is being run by the cabinet office, the very place where deep in the bowels lurk the spinners who are clearly out of touch with reality trying to prop up this 'fag-end of a government on the verge of collapse'. 

The Orange Party has in the past flagged up Brown's own personal Downing Street web site as a clear breach of civil service rules and protocols and nothing more than a cheap political propaganda sham at the taxpayer's expense. 

Hard-pressed families struggling with the recession will find it hard to understand how a New Labour government can so freely spend their cash peddling party political propaganda. As election day draws ever closer, 'Real Help Now' really takes the biscuit. 

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Stats Office Squares Up To Spinners

While it wasn't only the sea bass being grilled in the commons, served with lashings of Brown sauce, the row brewing at Westminster is how that reckless lot at the ONS had the cheek to publish clear, accurate and relevant jobs and immigrant figures, without letting Downing Street spinners get their grubby little paws on the press release. 

Yesterday's ONS release has left ministers "fizzing with anger" about the publication of numbers showing how many UK jobs go to immigrants.

The figures show the number of foreign workers increased by 175,000 to 2.4 million last year while the number of British workers fell by 234,000 to 27 million. Not good news for ministers still smarting from the BJ4BW protest. 

Such a release would have been unthinkable during the Campbell/Blair years and indeed up until very recently. But that was before home secretary Smith's political advisor was slammed by a commons watchdog after ordering the release of misleading knife crime figures. 

Then ministers and Downing Street spinners were blasted for 'corroding public trust'  using 'selective' figures to claim they are winning the war on the streets as ONS officials tried in vain to stop the government's 'reckless' release. 

The ONS is desperate to prove its independence and restore public confidence but juggling with any figures within a tight and highly skewed criteria set by the government has made a complete mockery of any government statistics, which no-one believes anymore, anyway. But well done guys for trying. 

Playing the numbers game has been a low point of the powerful Downing Street spin machine with obsessive control over what, where and when any information is released. 

Now it seems the spinning top had no idea what is coming out of the Office of National Statistics, as it fearlessly goes its own way. 

As usual, Mike Smithson over at politicalbetting puts his finger on the issue: "Isn’t this also a measure of the decline of Labour’s power? Whitehall has a strong sense that the game is up and bodies like the UK Statistics Authority can launch moves without fear."

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LibDems Suck Last Life Out Of New Labour

The death knell for the government has been sounded with the latest opinion poll showing voters deserting in droves, scrabbling around for alternatives. 

With vultures circling overhead, LibDems are picking up a few crumbs of comfort, as Brown and his minister's credibility sink to an all-time low.

On the surface, the new ICM poll in tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph shows a boost for the LibDems - up 6% at 22% - and puts New Labour down 4 on 28 per cent, only six points behind, while the Tories are down 4 to still a whopping 40 per cent.

But it is the government's handling of the economy where the survey paints its most gloomy picture, showing New Labour's support falling to its lowest ebb since Brown's well-managed and well-spun bank bail-out bounce last autumn.

What is unclear, however, is how the questions were framed and the weighting used, as ICM uses a methodology which generally favours the LibDems anyway. A similar poll for the Guardian recently had the LibDems on a silly 16%.

The Orange Party has noted New Labour's demise for a long time as voters, once enticed by New Labour Promised Land, started to shop around for an alternative, with Cameron's Conservatives slowly positioning themselves from the Party that's 'electable' to a government-in-waiting. 

After more than a decade in power that switch to the Tories can only go so far and with no SNP alternative as in Glasgow East, English voters will look to the LibDems as the Tories bottom out, trying to work out which suits them best. 

That is the key to how the general election will be fought. 

Within the Party too, the battle is between the political strategists who argue timing and when best to strike and government ministers who through a mixture of arrogance and self-interest try to cling onto power for as long as they can, in the vain hope that things will get better. They won't. 

At home, the recent refinery workers protest and the rise of Mandelson was the final nail in the coffin for a Party still conning voters that it has any semblance of a 'Labour' Party. Die-hard Labour supporters feel betrayed, with many going on record that they'll switch to the Tories. 

Abroad the cracks are starting to appear, as Brown and his plan to save the world are finally exposed as not all they're cracked up to be. 

Downing Street looked pathetic as spinners tried to play-down the savage Sarkozi attack on Brown's "economic mistakes" coming only a day after Brown was completely upstaged by old foe Blair and his quick prayer with best buddy Obama.  

Clarkson's Australian outburst centred on wet and contrived protests over "the one-eyed Scottish idiot" jibe. No one protested about the rest of his outburst - that Brown has been lying over the economy. 

The warnings signs are there, the question is whether Brown and the tightly knit cabal of cronies will heed them. 

Brown famously bottled one general election. He could have gone again, riding on the back of the cleverly managed spin of the "Brown bounce" but he didn't. 

Now the Party is at a crossroads and faces a stark choice. Either accept the election is lost and give voters what they want now, a chance to elect a new government or cling on to power and face extinction. 

What is still unclear is whether it will be the men in grey suits or white coats who will come and take away a deluded Brown or whether the Labour Party itself will continue to sit back and watch Brown destroy the Party and the country. 

The Orange Party still believes the Party has no choice but to eventually see sense, ditch Brown and call an election, sooner rather than later. Not least to try to salvage a few marginal seats. 

The only question remaining is whether it will be the sad, tired old New Labour, or Clegg's blustering LibDems who will form Her Majesty's Official Opposition.

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