And another thing…

Careful, that was dangerously anti-Gordon, especially as you seem to be favouring her version of events…

Yep… I can go with that sentiment.

Good on her! You both do yourself proud in sticking up for your principles. Don’t let them grind you down.

If all of this is true (and there’s little reason to suspect otherwise), then good on her.

It’s gratifying to see that there are a few Labour MPs who still have some backbone.

Sadly, there aren’t enough of them.

To paraphrase the party’s own theme song, the PLP seems to be dominated by cowards flinching and traitors sneering. Not so much ‘the Red Flag’ as ‘The Dead Flag‘.

Please, Labour, go to the country and let’s end this agony.

Dungeekin

Let us (or at least me) hope there are a few more principled ones in the PLP

Well, that’s certainly one view. Another view – which has much wider currency among those who care about the party, Tom – is that she is a self indulgent Blairite GB-hater.

If she despises the prime minister with such a passion, I’m surprised her ‘principles and honesty’ allowed her to keep claiming her ministerial pay check right up until the point she was asked to confirm that, you know, she would actually support the PM and the Government.

Just another addition to the small group of irreconcilables. Better to have them out.

I can only hope she won’t turn into the ‘embittered ex-minister with a chip on their shoulder and bearing comical grudge’ a la Charles Clarke (and one or two others).

And certainly she should avoid becoming a preposterous hypocrite in the Paul Farrelly mould: whining about being identified as a plotter, then attacking the prime minister in the most appalling and personal terms.

By the way, Tom, your blogging has been light over the past few days. Been busy on the email?

Good woman. If only a few more of you Labourites had some principles then you might make a decent opposition.

Damn shame the cabinet is now full of people who will do anything to hold on to ministerial wages for another year. Party/Wages over country is the _WRONG_ choice. I’m sorry Tom I know you don’t like personal attacks but the _entire_ cabinet can now definitively be called scumbags. (There I managed to avoid swearing at least!)

Good to know where their priority lies but seriously bad for the country.

Another example of Brown’s bullying style of ‘leadership’. I hope both you and Jane will be urging the PLP to go for a leadership election. Labour are obviously not going to win the next election but they face the choice of complete wipeout with Brown or just a complete pasting with someone else. Looking to the longer term it’s better to be coming back from a pasting than a wipeout.

I fail to see what is remotely principled about this. She could have gone quietly instead of further destabilising the govt.

I have slogged my guts out leafleting and campaigning but thanks to the national public squabbling we now have the BNP at Lancashire County Council and representing us in the NW in Europe.

The only people you are making electable are the BNP.

Sky News has been reporting that she was sacked, I presume judging by your implications, Tom, that’s bollocks.

Labour are really making a mess of this ‘coup’ and it’s very apparent that Labour MPs want Brown to go but haven’t got the courage to make it happen.

However it’s encouraging that some Labour MPs like Purnell and Kennedy have principles – good for them – it’s just a shame that the rest don’t seem to.

Sadly it’s us, the electorate, that will now suffer for a year from this failing dysfunctional government …but ho hum it’s not like we matter is it?

@ Mrs Blogs
“She could have gone quietly instead of further destabilising the govt.”

I think that was rather the point…

Like Richard says, this seems dangerously anti-Gordon.

Tom, do you have full confidence in Gordon Brown as PM and Leader of the Labour Party?

And do you want him to be leader at the time of the next general election?

(Frankly, as a Labour member, I think things have got to the stage where this is a very fine judgement call indeed).

@ Pete B.
“do you have full confidence in Gordon Brown as PM and Leader of the Labour Party?”

If he does, he’s the only one…

@ Richard yes quite. He really should have said “Jane was allegedly asked to declare her personal loyalty to Gordon.” especially when Downing Street deny such a question was asked. Tsk.

As for honour and principles, those two left town some time back clearly. What I just love about this Blairite lot is the way they go with, “Gordon had contributed greatly…………buttttttttttt….., or something similar. Oh yes, very honourable indeed.

I’m not sure Tom’s right about being unsackable either. Isn’t there an election coming soon?

@ Jo.

Tom’s got the (I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m wrong) 4th safest seat in Scotland and the 15th safest in parliament. The major threat to his seat comes from the Liberals who are really unlikely to unseat him, nor do the SNP stand much of a chance.

He’d need a Scottish swing to the SNP of around 15% or a universal swing of 20+% to the conservatives before he needs to worry about his own status.

Oh I don’t know Richard. I would say the anger towards Labour people will be greater here. After all the hostility towards Brown in England, not to mention the ridicule directed at him, by other Parties, simply because he was Scottish upset many people. Yet here we have Blairites doing even worse to him. My question is if this Fifth Column so detested him why on earth did they not oppose him and force a leadership election at the time? Or was there an absense of what Neil Kinnock termed (with thanks to Churchill) intestinal fortitude then too? Did they really prefer this sort of scenario when it has taken the focus completely away from the day to day running of the country at such a time? If this was their preferred option then surely all it proves is their obsession with themselves and their utter disregard for everything else?

@richard

what, you mean like the 22.5% swing the SNP acheived in Glasgow East last summer?

I’m not saying that the SNP will walk Glasgow South at the next general election, but you have to realise the SNP’s standing and support has changed dramatically since 2005. Im pretty sure the they will make a good fight of all the Glasgow ‘labour heartland’ constituencies.

Downing Street has denied it.

So she must be lying.

Richard,

whether she was sacked or she resigned (and others), what was or was not asked, going all over the media saying she can’t support Gordon… yet ordinary members have been out pounding the pavements …for what? so that lot can make a public mockery of all that hard work… everyone is just despairing.

Swap leaders again now? the Tories will become even more hysterical in screeching for a General Election. And guess who will be expected to go and deliver all those leaflets and face anger on the doorsteps, again!

…i’m off to soak me blisters.

@ Jo
“If this was their preferred option then surely all it proves is their obsession with themselves and their utter disregard for everything else?”

Agreed, Labour’s decision to coronate Gordon seemed like a good idea at the time but in hindsight it would have been clearly preferable for him to win an internal election. Having said that, he might have lost so in the eyes of his supporters, better to bully off the potential challengers.

-=-=-

@ Ross – An abberant result that stands no chance of being replicated at a GE. A 10% pro-SNP swing is to be expected. Tom’s seat will be just as safe but with different challengers for 2nd place.

-=-=-

@ Mrs Blogs

“yet ordinary members have been out pounding the pavements …for what?”

Indeed, perhaps you should consider lending your support to a less disunited party, perhaps the Conservatives…

@Benny Austwick
‘Good on her! You both do yourself proud in sticking up for your principles. Don’t let them grind you down.’

Well, it can’t be that the writing is on the wall for Gordon with indelible ink now, and being in his bad graces is seen as an electoral asset rather than a liability…

Ever seen a buffalo being borne down by hyenas, once the braver ones have risked serious hurt to wear it down?

Give ‘em hell at the PLP.

You might not win with Johnson, Miliband or Harman, but you will do better.

Getting rid of Gordon is not only in the interests of the Labour party, it is a matter of self interest.

@ Guido

“Getting rid of Gordon is not only in the interests of the Labour party, it is a matter of self interest.”

-=-=-

Hardly in Tom’s self-interest though.

Heavy parliamentary losses would stand him in better stead of receiving a shadow cabinet or sub-cabinet appointment in 2010, post-election.

Something to think about, eh?

I am totally disgusted by Jane Kennedy and the other plotters are schemers. Shame on you Mr Harris and the others like you.
Gordon Brown works his guts out and this is how your repay him. You and Kennedy seem to want an early general election as do other suspect individuals like Frank Field, well known as a close ally of the appalling Kate Hoey.

Yes, shame on you Mr Harris.

Put the poor man out of our misery.

She is wrong, Tom. If her problem was smearing against colleagues then that should have forced her out a long time ago.

Channel 4 News reporting that Oor Tom told Gordon to go at the ongoing PLP meeting.

Wow! What a headline:

“Two Labour MP’s grow spines”

Well done Jane and well done Tom.

To those who oppose this young woman. If she was, as she suggest, smeared, then she has every right to voice her opinion, and well done to her.

Smear is the lowest means of attack available – disgusting, in fact – and as we all know, a centrepiece of the Number 10 armoury.

@Chris Gale

I don’t think industry, admirable as it is, is a sufficient quality for leadership.