Thanks for all your comments.

I’m happy to give GB the chance, too. Though Bill, I’m not sure Bevan’s quote still stands up. The Third Way has had a significant impact on the electorate. Most politicos miss greatly political ideology, but I’m not sure the rump of the electorate do. Certainly not the safely-safely middle classes.

Of course the Middle Ground has forced the marginalised - the poor and/or ethnic minorities - to seek a stronger brand of politics. Be that the BNP (in the case of whites), or groups sympathetic to terrorism and violence (in the case of some marginalised minorities).

I like your blog, by the way.

So to sum it up if Chancellors perform as they are instructed they will be successful, otherwise…

And it happens, too, with the Prime Minister. Although this latter’s job is more complicated as he must put his two cents into the whole thing, he is the real representative of the what Richard calls the Master Puppeteers and I call the system.

Brown´s problems will be, as you say, moving from CFO to CEO, moving from management to leadership. I don´t think he´ll convince enough, though he may well grow into it too, you never can tell - people used to think Thatcher was wishy-washy and weak when she first took over from Heath.

For that matter, what do Prime Ministers do….?

First, he has not implemented any major changes to the economy; he certainly hasn’t gone back to Labour of the 70s. All he has done is tinker, with some increased public expenditure, but I doubt he has been any great thinker or innovator.

Second, there is a view that Brown has prospered at the Treasury because he has a small group of loyal advisers whose interests – maintaining growth and not doing anything too radical – haven’t required much leadership from Brown. Once he gets to No. 10, however, and has to deal with a myriad of people whose views and demands are incompatible, he will find the job very much more difficult than anything he’s faced at No. 11.

One further point that rubs me up the wrong way is that Brown was reported in the Guardian as claiming he wasn’t just going to be a new face, but a “new government”. That being so, it is incumbent on him to call an election, which he has ruled out doing. So much for democracy.

Oh and a final point – Brown lied brazenly and appallingly about the schoolgirl Laura Spence, in a pitiful sop to ‘old Labour’, with a bit of ‘class war’. That is not the conduct we are entitled to expect from a Prime Minister.

Reson 1..It’s better to be inside the tent urinating out, than the outside of the tent urinating in. As there is a piece of urine the proof material between you and those you wish to urinate on inside. With that piece of material between you and them, they don’t care how much you urinat,and the chances are that your feet get wet.

Reason 2.. Go find another tent to urinate out of. Although now you have two layers of urine proof material between you and those you originally wished to urinate on, and the chances are that when you look around in that tent you want to urinate on its occupants even more than the occupants of the first tent you were in .

Reason 3.. Urinate off completely, and no one will give a defecation where you urinate.

moral.. Stay in the first tent

Given that as Prime Minister, Brown can only deliver with the support of the parliamentary party, the number of his nominations bodes well. As for the constituency members, they are happy with the outcome. I certainly didn’t detect any overwhelming desire for Milburn, Miliband et al to stand. A few old-timers pined for McDonnell. People mainly just seemed to want the delibitating drift under Blair to end. As for the trade union voters, I don’t think most of them care quite frankly, who leads Labour. The leadership issue matters most to the parliamentary party and the constituency parties, who between them do all the work in getting Labour elected.