"I am calling on you to stand aside to give our party a fighting chance of winning" James Purnell letter to Brown, forwarded to Times, reported by Nick Robinson on Beeb. Purnell is Work and Pensions sec and has quit the Cabinet.
Update: the letter is to the Sun and Times. Murdoch papers. Sorry, the 'media conspiracy' bit of my brain is now working overtime.
Times has the full story, with much of the text of the resignation letter. Geoffrey Howe moment?
Full text of letter.
In my humble opinion: this would be the worst possible time to have a general election. It would be dominated by (relative) trivia. We need to have one when there isn't an ongoing expenses scandal, or a backstabbing frenzy within the Labour party, so that we can make a cool headed, sensible decision about what policies and government we need.
I.e. please can the Conservatives be quiet and calm down, or we'll start to think that you're just opportunistic bandwagon-jumpers, and not a serious party.
But it would be a good time to call one. You couldn't hold it or campaign during the summer holidays so it would end up being in October anyway. Plenty of time to calm down.
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ReplyDeleteOver here in Northern Ireland, I don't think the DUP (Ian Paisley's party) would want an election - they've lost probably half of their votes in the European election due to their coalition with Sinn Fein. The Conservatives (in an alliance with the Ulster Unionists) have seen their vote hold up, so maybe things are on the up for them, even here!
ReplyDeleteI think people on the whole are fed up with politicians and the expenses scandal - but would a new batch of sinful MPs do any better if the expenses rules are still the same?