PM warns Brown: 'If I am deposed I won't back you'
The war of words between Blair and Brown intensified yesterday with Blair warning that he would not endorse Brown were he to be "deposed."
It is the first time that the Prime Minister has acknowledged that such a thing is possible since Brown warned, "Remember that when Margaret Thatcher left, it was unstable, it was disorderly and it was undignified."
What I find interesting about all this is that the Prime Minister continues to feel that his endorsement carries any weight worth having, even were he to be deposed.There was growing speculation yesterday that Mr Blair would stand down in the summer of next year, allowing Mr Brown to be crowned Labour leader and Prime Minister at the party's annual conference in September. However, allies of Mr Blair suggested that he would leave Downing Street more quickly if Mr Brown threw his weight behind the reforms he wants to push through before departing and signed up to a strongly New Labour agenda for the future. Mr Blair wants to do everything in his power to keep Labour committed to reforms after he quits, believing that is the best way to ensure a fourth successive election victory
What's interesting to note in the above paragraph is the continuing use of the carrot and the stick and the remaining belief amongst Blair and his supporters that they continue to be in charge of the transition timetable.
I do not believe this to be the case.
Blair now stands at 26% approval rate in the polls, which hardly puts him in the position that he appears to think he holds, where his endorsement is some automatic lift-you-up for any incoming candidate.
The truth is more stark than Blair can bear to face.
Since the reasoning behind the illegal invasion of Iraq has slowly come to the public's attention - and the gulf between his rhetoric and the reality on the ground in Iraq had been laid bare - there has been a gradual haemorrhaging of public opinion away from the Prime Minister.
He now finds himself in the same position as George Bush, skewered on the horn of public opinion as a liar and a warmonger.
Blair can restate his clever word games and semantic talking points as many times as he wants, but the simple truth is that the public long ago stopped listening.
A majority of UK voters now want Blair simply to go.
We have heard enough. And we will never forgive the lies that led to the debacle that is Iraq.
Blair can negotiate and obfuscate the exact timing of his departure, but he cannot change his political epitaph. For that is already written. And it consists of four small letters.
Iraq.
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