Just thought I would post an update on what's been going on here in the UK, where it is looking increasingly likely--though not yet certain--that Prime Minister Gordon Brown may be forced to step down within a few days.
A group of people within the Labour Party, including at least some top members, are plotting against the PM. Brown has been heavily damaged by the expenses row (to recap for those who've missed it, members of Parliament have been caught out claiming for phony or questionable expenses, ranging from interest on non-existent mortgages to moat-cleaning, all revealed because an insider sold details of their deals to the right-wing Telegraph newspaper.) This group of people are collecting names of MPs willing to back a motion calling for his resignation.
Watch this space: Tomorrow is crunch day. I'll explain why below the fold.
Thursday is the day of the European elections. This is when we go to vote for our British representatives to the EU government in Brussels. And like many other voters who might have once voted for Labour (or those who might have voted for the Conservatives, for that matter) I am about to enter the polling place and put my X next to the name of a third party. It may be the Lib Dems, the Greens, or the "No2EU" campaign backed by the left-wing unions, but Labour will not be getting my vote.
The current expectation is that both Labour and the Conservative party will be getting precious few votes indeed. Some polls actually show Labour coming FOURTH, after the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and even UKIP, a nasty, anti-EU, anti-immigrant right-wing party. The fascist BNP are likely to get enough votes to send Nick Griffin to the EU, a candidate who has spoken at Klan rallies in the US and wants to have "voluntary" repatriation of immigrants. As an immigrant, there are obviously aspects of this that fill me with dread.
The outcome of tomorrow's desperately bad result for Labour will be increased calls for Brown to go. The Conservatives are ratcheting up the pressure for an immediate election to be called as a sort of referendum on Labour's poor government. They assume that they will win, and all indications are that this is correct, although their "brand" has also been badly damaged by this scandal. Anyone who has followed the story can see that both types of pigs have had their snouts in the trough.
But it's not just the expenses scandal. Brown's handling of the economy looks good on paper, but it's a fact that his poor job as Chancellor of ensuring proper regulation of the banking system was a major contributor to the problem. He's also trying to privatise the postal service, which has union people like me outraged--especially when the two potential buyers for it have now dwindled to one (dodgy) company, i.e., it's become a no-bid privatisation deal that will result in higher costs, worse service, and the government left holding the pension plan (which will then be closed to new hires).
Oh, and a complete idiot working for Brown's office got caught out trying to start a "DailyKos-style blog" (yes, it has been described that way) with other dirty tricksters that would have specialised in posting false but damaging rumours about Conservative politicians. It was enough to make me want to ring the guy up and explain that, um, the whole idea is to find out TRUE bad stuff and get the word out. There's no shortage of damaging stories about Tories, and the blogosphere will catch out lies. But these guys are just plain dumb... So dumb that Brown and his cronies seem incapable of aiming for anything but their own feet.
The Guardian newspaper, which always has backed Labour even when criticising its policies, has now officially asked Brown to step down. It has also printed information about the succession plan. This is a HUGE blow.
All indications are that Brown will try to cling to power by hook or by crook. Already there's been a bit of crooked dealings, with as yet unrevealed info about Hazel Blears' expenses (minister for communities--she just resigned from the Cabinet, one of FOUR Labour MPs, including two cabinet ministers, to quit since just yesterday) being given to the papers within hours of her departure, stuff that supposedly no one knew except Brown's office.
There are not many people who like Gordon Brown. He was not a guy who could have won an open election in the party, but got the job through a deal with Tony Blair. Now here's the part that's really sad--I can't think of a single person in the Labour Party who would make a good replacement PM or that I would trust to form a reform-minded government. You'd have to go all the way the back seats of the chamber to find someone who's absolutely clean of both expenses issues and questionable industry ties, but then they might not have the ability to get things done. I mean, Chris Mullin, the MP for Sunderland, is a great guy and a straight arrow, but would he make a good PM?
A lot of people on the left side of the party like Alan Johnson, current minister for health, but he seems too close to Brown and Blair to me as well. At least as an ex-postie he might not be so quick to do the dirty on the mailmen... David Miliband, the foreign secretary? Oh, please! So we are left to watch the government implode, something the party has already done after the purges of leftwingers in the 90s made Blair's NuLabour/jump to the right project possible.
Which leaves the depressing possibility that our next PM will be... David Cameron. The posh, smooth-sounding, bland-faced, easily controlled puppet of the rabid right wing.