spineless, gutless, witless

I can't believe it - Brown survived the PLP meeting pretty much unscathed.

What the hell? Where were the rebels? Where was the email round robin?

Apparently about 8 MPs spoke out against Brown (out of about 300), about 25 spoke in favour. Brown was surrounded by the cabinet and senior party figures (Neil Kinnock, etc.) and on Channel 4 I just watched a leading rebel, Barry Sheerman, come out and say that Brown was leading the party forward and there wasn't even going to be a ballot of MPs to determine whether he should resign or not.

Jesus... this is the biggest case of mass delusion since they got busy with the Kool-Aid in Jonestown in 1978.

So Brown promised to listen more to the PLP? That's exactly what he said when he became Prime Minister. He didn't do it then, so why the hell is he going to do it now? Why is anybody in the PLP believing this rubbish?

When Gordon Brown leads the Labour party to electoral annihilation next year, it will be largely his fault (and of course Tony Blair's, although Brown has had plenty of time to purge the worst excesses of Blairism - if he had wanted to do so, but he didn't) but the rebels who couldn't get their act together will also have to shoulder some of the blame. As will the Cabinet heavyweights who could have done a Geoffrey Howe and taken him out - principally Alan Johnson and David Miliband. Full marks to James Purnell for at least having the guts to speak out.

The irony is that the Blairites, who have been so wrong on policy, are 100% right on strategy. Apparently Stephen Byers addressed a Progress rally today and said that Labour was headed for a repeat of 1983. At that point, everyone knew that Michael Foot, great guy that he was (and is), was leading the party to electoral oblivion - but no-one actually twisted the knife and deposed him. The result was a Conservative majority of about 150.

2010 will be a repeat of 1983 for Labour, except much worse. Labour achieved 28% of the vote in 1983; in 2010 it will be lucky to get 20%. With the Tories likely to get about 40%, a Conservative majority of 200 or more is not impossible. Labour might be pegged back to about 100 MPs; which means that anyone thinking about challenging for the leadership after the election who is not in an absolute rock-solid safe seat can forget about it.

The whole thing is a complete disaster, and I've had enough. At this point, I'm washing my hands of any further commentary on internal Labour Party politics for the foreseeable future. These Labour MPs have made their bed and now they have to lie in it. If there's anything left after the election then I'll help pick up the pieces, but there's nothing really left to talk about before then; a party committing suicide isn't particularly interesting or inspiring if you (at least nominally) support that party. So well done all you spineless, gutless, witless fools in the Parlimentary Labour Party; you're getting what you deserve, and I hope you feel good about yourselves.