Is This Is The End?

Well there you have it: this looks like the hefty branch that added to a large pile of kindling should break the camel's back. James Purnell has resigned in what seems a slightly baffling move. There's no question that this will make it hard for Brown to survive: it is the first resignation that cannot be obviously dismissed as motivated by either personal circumstances and/or grievances against Brown and it will surely embolden those who perhaps want to resign but didn't want to associate themselves with the likes of Blears or go out on a limb by themselves and have their own personal motives for for their resignation questioned.

It seems strange because first of all the results of the elections aren't in yet and secondly because it doesn't seem in character. Purnell is a Blairite or 'moderniser' as they like to be known, but not one of those who is bristling with contempt for Gordon Brown. Lastly the results in the local and European elections may not be as bad as expected. Blears' attack on Brown will perhaps have encouraged a few Labour supporters to vote Labour in order to stave off the catastrophic results that would allow the likes of Blears to claim vindication, as well as a possible swelling of the vote in those areas where the BNP have been talked up.

It is key that if Brown is to be toppled by the Blairites, as well as possible moves from the left that the Blairites are not allowed to 'modernise' the party in their own mad way as if they do it would tear the Labour Party apart. This may well need to happen anyway but if it happens in the run up to an election it could mean that the Tories face an opposition that is not opposing them but itself. One thing's for certain 'The People's Dave' will be laughing in his public paid for house, or perhaps in the half of Oxfordhire or Lincolnshire that his family owns.