I’M LIVING it up in Brighton these days, and this week my new home played host to the Labour Party Conference.
The streets were awash with red banners – it was like Berlin circa 1939.
The Press was out in droves and firing all sorts of questions at our beleaguered PM.
You know, in all the years Gordon Brown has been on the front bench and I have sat powerless in my favourite chair, I’ve never even noticed he had eyesight problems.
It has been complete news to me to learn he’s partially blind.
Considering this cabinet once included David Blunkett, whose handicap was embraced with a “can do” attitude, I’m surprised to find this is making the headlines now.
But now the tables have turned, the third act is over and there’s a fat lady singing centre stage.
Is what was once seen as a “liability” by some now a get-out-of-jail-free card?
I am becoming more cynical, perhaps, as the years advance against my will.
I’m increasingly more disillusioned with the political world and the endless parade of scandals.
Coupled with talk of the PM’s rumoured pill popping, it looks to me like a set up for resignation on medical grounds.
A resignation forced from within his own party ranks I think, a decidedly British coup in that it’s being engineered in clandestine fashion and in keeping with the time-honoured traditions of the old guard.
Brown is excused the humiliation of a party-wide mutiny if he agrees to quietly step aside, citing reasons of ill health for his departure and thus keeping his honour intact and his name in the good graces of the historical record.
The wounded general, he alone privy to the truth of his lieutenants’ treachery, will agree for the sake of his party.
And they must appear to be steadfast and united behind him 100% if they’re to have any hope at the next general election.
It’s rather like the pistol a gentleman criminal of old was afforded on his arrest, to escape the shame of a public trial and the torture of life in prison.
Brown, I fear, has been sentenced already but it doesn’t matter who lands his job anyway – the Labour Party’s days are numbered, as recent polls have revealed.
I think it’s up to us to set things right. I think everyone out there with the wherewithal to stand as a candidate should do just that.
All the three major parties have been left with egg on their faces over the expenses scandal, and there is no one left to trust.
We all know what must be done, we are all aware of the social injustices to address.
They’re supposed to work for us and they don’t do a very good job, so let’s sack them and do the job ourselves!