As some resign and others don't, but only Purnell has the commitment to truth to say that Gordon Brown is finished, as Johnson sets up his campaign team and then accepts the job as Home Secretary, Miliband Major backs his failing foe Brown not his friend Purnell, as the Chancellor clings on leaving Balls and Woodward weeping in the shadows, and as we recall Frank Field's comments last year about the lack of political VCs on Labour's front bench, it's worth also remembering Tony Blair's parting advice at the 2006 Labour conference:
"The first rule of politics: there are no rules. You make your own luck.
….And if we show belief in ourselves, the British people will feel that belief and be given confidence…it's about a Party's character.
...You're the future now. Make the most of it."
Labour has very few leaders who are game-changers. They are reactive, shaped by events, not shaping them. Whatever happens over the next few days and weeks will happen to and despite of the Cabinet, not because of it. Even if Alan Johnson takes over at some point soon, he has already sacrificed his credibility. The force has left the Labour Party.
The Conservative Party should no longer worry about who leads the Labour Party into the next election (although clearly strategy may need adjustment). Our task now is to make sure we are elected with as much popular enthusiasm and goodwill as possible, not because we are not Labour. We will have a horrendous mess to fix, and will need all the electoral mandate and political capital we can muster.
David Cameron once told Blair "You were the future once". Reading Blair's words again, they are good advice for all politicans not just the Labour Party, including the man who perhaps even then Blair believed is the future now.
