Gordon Again

The people who pass for Senior members of the Government these days have been out in force trying to make Gordon Brown look like less of a loser.

I heard one of those identikit Labour party politicians that they have these days; he is a chap called Alan Johnson and he is the Secretary of State for Health. You may remember that he was one of those ones who tried to get elected as deputy leader last year and then got into lots of trouble spending donated money that hadn't been properly registered and which they had to give back because they'd passed a dopey law to make unregistered donations illegal. Of course they didn't realise they were all breaking the law even though it was them who campaigned for it, drafted it, steered it through parliament and lectured everybody else about how great they were for passing it. Frankly what surprised me was that so many people wanted to move into Prescott's office – especially knowing what he got up to in there. Anyway, Mr. Johnson said that the job of Prime Minister is now more difficult than it has ever been, which was why he was making such a dog's breakfast of it. I'm not sure if he has heard of, say, the second world war.

He did, however, demonstrate why Gordon is safe. With people like Johnson as potential successors there is no chance of a challenge.