When Brown stood for the leadership, there should have been an election, as he had many opponents and doubters even then and it would have been healthy for the party to have an election given that it had been 13 years since the last one, but in the end no-one serious had the cojones.
Brown toyed with having an election in October 2007 (when he'd have lost), but when the Conservatives didn't roll over and die, and the opinion polls turned even slightly against him, he didn't have the cojones.
Brown should have openly argued for spending cuts at the time of the April 2009 Budget, arguing that Labour cuts would be more responsible and caring than Tory cuts (as Mandelson is believed to have urged him), but he didn't have the cojones.
The Cabinet should have told him it was over immediately after the June 2009 European elections, when James Purnell resigned, but they didn't have the cojones.
The backbenchers should have told him it was over in mid-June 2009, at the time of the "peasants revolt", or perhaps in September 2008 in the run-up to Conference, but they didn't have the cojones.
Darling should have insisted upon addressing the UK's absurd and dangerous budget deficit properly as part of his Pre-Budget Report 2009, or resigned if he was not permitted to do so, but he lacked the cojones.
So now where will Labour's collective terror take us? Are they more afraid of Gordon Brown's cronies or of the crushing they will receive from the voters if he leads them into the Election? Who cares?! With Brown or without him, it's clear that the Labour Party is a cojones-free zone. Mercifully we shall not be forced to put up with this farce for much longer, and thereafter Labour's struggles with its internal demons will have all the political relevance of the UKIP-Vanitas affair or David Icke's near-leadership of the Green Party.
