Will Gordon Brown resign today ?

[BoredBloke]

That is a problem for the constitution of Parliament. As you know, the leader of the majority party is automatically Prime Minister, but the voting public do not get to choose the leaders of any of the parties.

In fact, as Ken Livingstone pointed out last night, the party leader is not chosen by the parliamentary party either, but by the whole party.

Livingstone thinks that it is right that it should be so; many of us might well think that this is not the way to choose the Prime Minister.

While the public vote for a party not the PM, that is bollocks in the real world. Labour lost to Thacher because of Foot. Labour lost to the Tories because of Kinnock, the Tories lost to Labour because of Blair.

[TykeMerc]

Sorry, but that is not the way British politics works.

No matter what you think, we do NOT elect the Prime Minister. We elect individual representatives (usually affiliated to a party). Once the dust settles we see who (if any) has the majority and therefore the mandate to govern.
It is usually that parties leader who is made PM. It is up to that party how they decide who the leader should be.

Absolutely spot on, since Blair stepped aside and Brown took the reins I've heard him accused of being a PM without a mandate hundreds of times and it's simply not true. The PM isn't an elected president and the only people who vote for the PM are those in his constituency.
It's a nonesense that's perpetuated by the party system, if you look at a ballot paper it's very clear that party affiliation is listed as a secondary item and at least in theory you're voting for a person not a party.

[DaveB]

Reshuffle is underway. Darling is keeping his job, apparently.

Darling has refused point blank to leave the treasury, threatening to resign if he is forced to. Brown can't let that happen so he is staying put.

Brown effectivly has no authority left in the cabinet now, current ministers can tell him where to go if they don't like whats on offer.

The reshuffle is supposed to buy him time and get some loyalists into the cabinet, but he is limited in what he can change and who he can bring in.

I give him till the end of the summer at the most. He may go before then which would give Labour time to sort out a new leader while parliament was in recess and lay the ground work for a general election in the Autumn.

[Menelaus]

Darling has refused point blank to leave the treasury, threatening to resign if he is forced to. Brown can't let that happen so he is staying put.

Brown effectivly has no authority left in the cabinet now, current ministers can tell him where to go if they don't like whats on offer.

The reshuffle is supposed to buy him time and get some loyalists into the cabinet, but he is limited in what he can change and who he can bring in.

I give him till the end of the summer at the most. He may go before then which would give Labour time to sort out a new leader while parliament was in recess and lay the ground work for a general election in the Autumn.

Keep ones friends close, ones enemies closer - Alan Johnson (ex-postie) is the new Home Secretary.

[dang65]

What the hell has happened to Blair anyway? I know he was quite unpopular when he left office, and he could be expected to take a break, go and do some speeches etc, and I think he got some kind of Middle East Peace Envoy job... but I haven't heard a word from him, probably since he left office. Where'd he go?

[Menelaus]

What the hell has happened to Blair anyway? I know he was quite unpopular when he left office, and he could be expected to take a break, go and do some speeches etc, and I think he got some kind of Middle East Peace Envoy job... but I haven't heard a word from him, probably since he left office. Where'd he go?

Sitting on the sidelines, grinning that maniacal grin of his (think Jack Nicholsons' version of the Joker in the Batman films) and watching McBroon **** it up.

I also suspect that he's waiting the siren call to return upon a white steed and save the world, sorry, party.

[Churchill]

Blair? He's waiting to be EU President.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Classic!

You Tube: The lights have gone out in Downing Street

[Gordon Brown]

I will never resign. Why would I when I'm going to be elected Prime Minister at the next election?

[suityou01]

What the hell has happened to Blair anyway? I know he was quite unpopular when he left office, and he could be expected to take a break, go and do some speeches etc, and I think he got some kind of Middle East Peace Envoy job... but I haven't heard a word from him, probably since he left office. Where'd he go?

He is the new president of Europe. Sorry, "will be" the new president of Europe. Linky

HTH