Obama leads McCain among likely voters 48 percent to 45 percent in the national poll. With a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points this is a very close race and could still go either way with 4% of voters saying they were still undecided.

The survey, the first of daily tracking polls that will poll public opinion until the November 4 election, showed Obama with an advantage among the critical swing voting blocs of independents and women.

"Obama is leading among the key target groups, but this race is nowhere close to over," pollster John Zogby said. "The deal is far from closed."

The presidential rivals meet in the second of their three scheduled debates on Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee. The poll was taken Saturday through Monday, after the debate between vice presidential candidates Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden.

The poll found Obama led among independents by 49 percent to 42 percent and among women by 51 percent to 42 percent -- two key swing groups that could decide a close presidential race.

The 47-year-old Illinois senator, who would be the first black U.S. president, won 9 of every 10 black voters in the poll and led among Hispanics, young voters, self-described moderates and those making less than $50,000 a year.

"Mr. McCain and his Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama, left the White House by a side entrance without commenting." Oops! :(

Tucked away on page 21 is this nugget: "On this swing, the seats of Wallasey, Staylbridge & Hyde, Worsley & Eccles South and Bury South, which were not polled, would also be won by Conservatives."  That's very encouraging to those of us in those seats BUT all that matters is how people vote come the actual election - and that means more knocking on doors by myself and the team between now and then.

Comment at end

18th September, 2008

POLL SHOWS MORE THAN 50% FOR TORIES

It may have been a quiet day for Mr Brown yesterday, but if the latest Ipsos/Mori opinion poll is confirmed, and a couple of sites say they have had sight of them, Mr Brown's critics might be about to pile more woe on his weary head.

"Is the biggest loser Nick Clegg?"

... asks 'Political Betting' Maybe, but I don't think Brown will be dwelling on THAT.

'As reported in my second update on the previous thread I have just spoken to a journalist who had the embargoed Press Association story and he has corroborated the figures.

Clearly these are sensational numbers and will put pressure on both Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg. At least Labour has the consolation that its vote stayed at the same level in the survey as in the last poll by the firm in August.
For Nick Clegg - still reeling after his £30 a week pension comment - these numbers could not have come at a worse time. In one sense he’s fortunate - his conference is finished and he could have had an uncomfortable few hours if the poll had come out before his speech
For Labour the story goes on. There can be little doubt that without a change at the top they are facing a disastrous general election within the next twenty months. Would a new leader make a difference?? It might and that just undermines Brown’s position. Potential rebels have almost nothing to lose.

There’s due to be a mass of polling in the next few days ahead of Labour’s gathering in Manchester. In the bunker they must be praying for something that offers a glimmer of hope.'

Mike Smithson

But Guido Fawkes and his mad right-wing followers (are these REALLY nice, gentle Conservative types?) have a bit more fun with language, as usual.

'MORI tomorrow will have a poll putting the Tories on 52%, Labour on 24% and the Lib Dems on 12%. Total political meltdown.

The FTSE has crashed to new lows and closed at 4912, well below the psychologically important 5000 level. Economic meltdown.

UPDATE : According to Electoral Calculus, this would give the Tories 493 seats, Labour 121 and leave the Lib Dems on 8 seats.'

What was it things could only get ...?

You have to wonder if Cameron would almost hit Blair's highest rates, if only he'd say or do something memorable.

Video - PMQs 1st November, 2006: Blair, Cameron & Mr. Speaker

WHAT THE PAPERS, BLOGGERS  & LABOUR PEOPLE SAY ON THIS POLL RESULT

• Rebel, Barry Gardiner MP on Brown - "failure of judgement ... vision"
• Prescott says disunity kills parties
• Telegraph on poll - best for Tories since Thatcher
• Labour heading for 70 Year Electoral Low - says John Curtice
• Reuters report Julia Clark, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said it was the highest Conservative score since the monthly tracker poll began in 1979. She said it was very unlikely Brown could recover from such a big deficit before the next election. "The public are so fed up with Labour right now, they are sick with Gordon Brown," she told Reuters. With the credit crunch taking a deepening toll on the economy, Labour members are increasingly questioning whether Brown is the right man to lead them. Brown faced down a revolt this week by Labour legislators demanding a leadership contest.
• The truth on the Little Plotters - Spiked! spikes 'em where it hurts - the Coup Plotters Inglorious
• Is Labour REALLY less democratic than any of the others? I'm not so sure. But it CAN look like that
  
• Milburn, Purnell (Blairites both) speak out. Is John Reid set to come to the rescue?
• Watch Brown at the Olympics - "of course" he'll still be there by Christmas - "getting on with the job"
• This blogger thinks it's interesting that there is no mention of this poll on the BBC's politics page He's absolutely right. I've checked. And even a search at the BBC website gives "0" returns. Why? Is this not newsworthy? No news is better than bad news? Is the Beeb Labour biased after all its denials? Surely not?
• The Sun's YouGov poll  - on 9th May 2008 - bears some resemblances to today's - Con: 49%/Lab: 23%/LibDem:17%. Except, might I suggest in my usual never-say-die way - for Blair's recent poll rating. This May 2008 poll was prior to the Crewe & Nantwich by-election which Labour lost. It was also prior to the recent polls saying that Blair is the ONLY one who could help Labour recover.
• An American resume of British papers takings on this poll
• Gordon MUST go to Glenrothes by-election
  

Comment at end

18th September, 2008

"If a picture paints a thousand words ..."

OPERATION BANNER

Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair, left, and current Prime Minister Gordon Brown, right, are seen after a service to commemorate the efforts of more than 300,000 members of the British armed forces who served on Operation Banner in Northern Ireland at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008. The service paid tribute to the many servicemen and women, and civil servants who served in Northern Ireland, remembering those who gave their lives helping to bring greater peace and stability to the province over 38 years. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Here we have the present and previous Prime Ministers, (and yes, I know a picture is no more than the capture of a moment), but somehow it speaks volumes.

This event, the commemoration of the ending of the Northern Ireland conflict, held at St Paul's Cathedral, was a sombre day for all, but also a day of thanks, recognition and celebration of the forces' great efforts over 38 long, bloody years.

I have mentioned here before that Tony Blair gets insufficient praise for his personal commitment to the ending of this decades long conflict. Blair knows, and this picture shows a certain amount of satisfaction,  that his name will go down in history, deservedly, as THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER who ended this war. I also believe that his name will be recalled with pride as the British leader who won several other wars.

Brown seems to have other things on his mind.

I wonder if it might have been the thought of revolting MPs or the next opinion poll.

A CHALLENGE FOR TONY

Tony - when you return from your first Yale lecture and the  TV show in the states, (having wowed the audience into dumping Obama/McCain and changing the constitution), can you spare an afternoon to pop up to Manchester?

We'd all LOVE to see you there.

Forget the airbrushing last year - they didn't mean it - they didn't know any better. But this year? This year things could be different.

And why not? A former leader and prime minister has every right to attend his party's conference, does he not?

A LITTLE FRINGE TALK ON THE WAY FORWARD - STANDING ROOM ONLY!

Republican Presidential candidate John McCain is ahead of Democratic candidate Barack Obama in three fresh opinion polls which were released yesterday. In the early polls Obama was ahead of McCain but the wind is changing it's direction now to John.

A survey by US Today and Gallup shows McCain ahead of Obama 50-46. This is the first survey in which McCain has taken the lead. This is also his biggest lead margin among the three. CNN and Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that they both were tied at 48. The Washington Post/ABC News poll gave Obama a narrow over McCain by 47-46. In that same poll McCain has got 51 pc of White womens vote.

How much proof do we need that Labour got it all wrong in removing their previous PM?

Comment at end

6th September, 2008

"ONLY BLAIR COULD SAVE LABOUR NOW"

(The Independent, 6th September 2008)

For weeks, months even, Labour has struggled at anything from 19% - 24% behind the Conservatives in opinion polls. A new poll has thrown a spanner into the works.

The Independent has the results of the poll it commissioned this week from ComRes (view full results here - pdf format).  Pasted article here from 'The Independent'

THE MAIN FINDING

ONLY TONY BLAIR has a chance of beating the Tories at the next general election.

Well, well ... so perhaps I haven't been as out of touch with public opinion as some have mocked!

He is 6 percentage points ahead of any other leading Labour politician, including Brown, with 31% of voters saying they'd vote Labour were Blair leading the party, compared to 25% at most for all others! This proviso reduces the Tories' lead to  41% - a reachable margin of 10%. In fact, since people almost invariably vote AGAINST a party rather than FOR a party, this ten percentage point difference is eminently reachable.

But ONLY under Blair.

The closest possible contenders do not improve Labour's present chances under Gordon Brown. Both David Miliband and Jack Straw are on 25% each, the same as Brown. But with them in charge they lose 3% to the Tories.

The Question: If there were a general election tomorrow, which party would you vote for if each of the following were leader of the Labour Party?

[Note: The base result: Labour - 25% / Conservative - 44% / Lib Dems - 17%]

For Tony Blair: Labour-31% /Conservative-41% /Lib Dems-18%

For David Miliband: Lab-25% / Con-44% / Lib Dems-18%

For Jack Straw: 25% / 44% / 19%

For Alan Johnson: 23% / 44% / 19%

For Harriet Harman: 23% /45% / 18%

For Ed Balls: 22% / 44%/ 19%

A QUICK ANALYSIS BASED ON THE 'BASE POLL' RESULT OF LABOUR 25%, CONSERVATIVE 44%, LIB DEMS 17%. [The other parties -SNP, Plaid Cymru, BNP, Greens, UKIP and Others account for numbers under 5% throughout all choices.]

• With David Miliband leading Labour, intending Labour voters and Conservative voters remain the same as at present under Brown - 25% / 44%, though 1% more will go for the Liberal Democrats (18%, up from the base of 17%).
• With Jack Straw leading, intending Labour and Tory voters remain the same, with 2% more going for the Lib Dems (up to 19% from 17%).
• With Alan Johnson, intending Labour voters drop 2%, Conservative voters would remain the same - 44%, and Lib Dems gain 2% up from 17% to 29%.
• With Harriet Harman, intending Labour voters drop 2%, while Conservatives gain 1% and the Lib Dems remain on 18%.
• With Ed Balls, intending Labour voters drop 3%, the Conservatives stay on 44% and the Lib Dems gain 2% - up to 19%.

BLAIR 6% AHEAD OF ALL OTHERS

Only with Blair in charge are inroads made into any of these poll results. He is 6% ahead of ANY of the other alternatives as far as garnering those willing to vote Labour is concerned. And most importantly he pulls back 3% from the Conservatives. All this without even trying and without having faced them down or spoken of their policies (or lack of) within the last year since he left office. This seems to indicate a lack of confidence in David Cameron's Tories, and perhaps a feeling that with Blair in charge he would soon mess up their non-committal tendencies and their lack of any vision other than that already put in place by Blair himself-adopted wholesale and unashamedly by 'Blair Mark II' - David Cameron.

It also displays a lack of regard for Brown and the other would-be leaders and perhaps a re-appraisal of Mr Blair now that he is no longer around. A kind of sentimental vote of empathy. In other words, perhaps he wasn't so bad after all; and perhaps he was right about Iraq and worldwide fundamentalist terrorism. At least with HIM we knew where he stood. With the Tories - we still have NO real idea on the big issues. And Brown seems singularly incapable of wheedling any information out of them.

And of course, compared to Brown, Blair's leadership abilities come into a far clearer focus.

But whatever the reasons, and there may be many, this poll result will not have escaped the attention of Blairites, the possible candidates named above, Gordon Brown or the Labour party itself. As well, of course as David Cameron's Tories, who cheered to the rafters on Blair's departure.

It would seem that Labour can either work out a way - ANY WAY - of persuading Mr Blair to return OR they can wait until defeated at the next election and then beg him to return.

As for Mr Blair himself - what would he do if asked to re-consider his position?

Let's imagine phone calls from all the above:

MILIBAND: Blair: 'Oh hello, David. Well, no, of course not. Anyway, I'm kind of busy right now. You should have stood against Gordon when you had the chance.'

STRAW: Blair: 'Hi there, Jack. Too many knives - not enough backs?'

HARMAN: Blair: 'Oh hello there, Harriet. I don't think so. You let me down before ... more than once. Why should I help to save your job now?'

JOHNSON: Blair: 'Hi Alan. Look, I know you're a friend, perhaps my only one, but the party made me an offer I couldn't refuse. THEY knew better! And if we're going down why should I lead the troops now? I haven't lost an election before, remember.'

BALLS: Blair: 'Ed? Ed Who?'

BROWN: Blair: 'Hi Gordon. Well, what can I say?'

Only Blair could save Labour now

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor, 'The Independent'
Saturday, 6 September 2008

Tony Blair is the only senior Labour figure who would transform Labour's prospects at the next general election, according to a ComRes poll for The Independent.

The former prime minister would cut the Conservative Party's projected majority of 182 to just 20 seats – enough to raise Labour's hopes it could prevent David Cameron becoming Prime Minister. The Tories' current poll lead would be almost halved from 19 to 10 points.

The good news for Gordon Brown is that none of the alternative leaders being touted as his possible successor would secure Labour more public support than he is winning.

Under David Miliband or Jack Straw, Labour's ratings would be exactly the same as under Mr Brown, while the party would perform worse if Alan Johnson, Harriet Harman or Ed Balls took over.

Although the survey shows Mr Brown is unpopular among Labour supporters, it suggests the Labour brand is now tarnished in the eyes of many voters – another sign that changing its leader might have little impact.

Some 49 per cent of the public say they do not like Mr Brown or the Labour Party. Only 16 per cent say they like him and the party. Mr Brown is slightly less popular than his party: 20 per cent of people say they like Labour but not him, while 8 per cent like him but not the party.

Remarkably, 34 per cent of people who intend to vote Labour say they like the party but not Mr Brown. Only 3 per cent of them like him and not Labour, and just 58 per cent of Labour supporters like both the party and its current leader.

Among people who are undecided or who refuse to say how they will vote, 44 per cent say they do not like Mr Brown or Labour. Only 12 per cent like the party but not the Prime Minister, suggesting Labour's problems go much deeper than its leader.

The survey puts the Tories on 44 per cent (down two points on the last monthly ComRes poll), Labour on 25 per cent (up one point), the Liberal Democrats on 17 per (down one point) and other parties on 14 per cent (up two points). Those figures would give Mr Cameron an overall majority of 182 if repeated at a general election.

Labour's rating would remain at 25 per cent if Mr Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, or Mr Straw, the Justice Secretary, were leader, the poll finds. Under Mr Johnson, the Health Secretary, and Ms Harman, Labour's deputy leader, the party's rating would slip to 23 per cent, while under Mr Balls, the Schools Secretary, it would fall to 22 per cent.

Under Mr Blair, Labour would win 31 per cent, reducing the projected Tory majority to just 20 seats. Mr Blair, who is more popular now than when he left Downing Street last summer, cannot return as leader because he is no longer an MP, but according to ComRes, he would enjoy much more support among both men and women than any other Labour figure including Ms Harman. Mr Blair would win the backing of 31 per cent of women and Ms Harman 23 per cent.

Labour MPs who want the Cabinet to oust Mr Brown had been hoping that polls would show that a change of leader would close the gap with the Tories – in the hope of creating a bandwagon effect for Mr Miliband, the front-runner to succeed him.

While Mr Brown's allies will be relieved by the findings, his critics will argue that they reflect the fact that politicians such as Mr Miliband and Mr Johnson are not as well known by the public as Mr Brown or Mr Blair—and that a new leader would soon enjoy a much higher profile.

The finding that Mr Blair would close the gap will give Labour a ray of hope that the Tories' lead is "soft", showing hostility to the Government during the economic downturn rather than positive support for Mr Cameron's party. Privately, some Tory strategists believe their party's "real" lead is more like 10 than 20 points.

Labour critics of Mr Brown still insist that a change of leader could spark a revival for the party. They point out Mr Brown received a bounce in the polls after succeeding an unpopular Mr Blair 16 months ago, only to squander it by calling off plans for an autumn election.

For the poll, ComRes interviewed 1,013 British adults on 3-4 September. Data was weighted by past vote recall. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Full tables can be viewed at www.comres.co.uk

UK Polling Report: Recent Opinion Polls show the Tories averaging around 44%, from 43%-48%, and Labour from 24%-29%. Only this recent finding by ComRes (with Blair leading) brings the Tories down to 41% and Labour up to over 30%.

Cameron tells Labour to back Brown or sack him - with a reminder that they will not be permitted to find another leader without a general election

'The New Progressive' says that Charles Clarke has declared Blairism "dead". Really? You could have fooled me (and Mr Cameron?)

OTHER REPORTS ON THIS POLL

• FT says the finding that Blair could cut lead from 19% to 10%,  will disappoint those who thought Blair a liability
• Yahoo News: 49% said they liked neither Mr Brown nor the Labour party
• India site for Howrah & West Bengal:
• 'Mr Blair, who quit as Prime Minister and Labour party leader after 10 years in June 2007, could cut the Conservative Party’s projected majority of 182 to just 20 seats if he replaces Prime Minister Gordon Brown, according to a ComRes poll of 1,013 Britons for the Independent.'
• The Australian HeraldSun
  
• Politics.co.uk
• Belfast Telegraph
• And even those who haven't read, or try to ignore the poll have little hope for the survival of Labour: Alistair Darling & the Implosion of the Labour Government

A couple of reasons why Blair will be hard to persuade back to lead British politics again

1. BEIT IBA, West Bank

Tony Blair toured a Palestinian aluminium factory and was told it runs at one-third capacity because of Israeli import restrictions. He promised he’ll take it up with Israeli authorities.

Blair said he remains motivated to help resolve the Mideast conflict, despite slow progress.

“I think it is … the single most fundamental issue for us to resolve, in terms of peaceful coexistence, not just between Israelis and Palestinians, but between the West and Islam, the world and Islam,” he said.

2. KEEPING THE FAITH

Mr Blair feels a calling to try to unite world faiths for good. His professorship at Yale begins soon.

3. CLIMATE, AID TO AFRICA, SPORTS FOUNDATION - isn't he a little pre-occupied?

WHY DID THE INDEPENDENT, BLAIR-HATER AS IT IS, ASK THIS QUESTION?

By the way if you are wondering why the Indy has run this poll and asked this question when they clearly were part of the press plot to help remove him, you're not the only one. Others have e-mailed me to ask me this.

My answer to those who have asked is this:

'I think it is because they saw that he had done so well in last month's poll for YouGov - 49% to Brown's 13% and are worried, since they hate him so much. So now they are trying to make the point that he COULD NOT BECOME LEADER BECAUSE HE IS NOT AN MP!

Their hope is that people will forget about him when asked again in a future poll because "it is not possible", so that next time people are asked they will discount him.

Of course, with Blair nothing is impossible. If he really wants it, that is. I'm not sure yet if he really does. He keeps his cards close to his chest. I'd take an educated guess that Cherie does, though!'

Since last Friday, all I've been able to achieve with any degree if success is to have the weirdest dreams possible. A diseased mind is the devil's canvas, they say, and oh boy, did he paint! The most vivid dream I had had was that of The Talking T-Shirt. In a nutshell, my T-shirt begged and cried and pleaded with me not to put it into the washer, and when I told it that I had to put it in the washer and that I had no choice, it said that it understood and that it hoped to see me if it was still alive. :D

Apart from this, I spent the weekend in Chennai with some friends, and was hoping to catch a play in the the Chennai Theater Festival, but didn't happen. I have fully recovered from my strange illness and this morning, I sat down and analyzed the results of the opinion poll, and found some very interesting percentages.

As of Monday, August 11th, 9 am IST, there were 68 comments, and when I went through them all, I found the following trend, which has been captured in the chart below:

45 % of the respondents felt that taller women were more attractive.

40 % of the respondents felt that shorter women were more attractive.

15 % of the respondents declined to comment and felt that they were on the wrong page. :D

So, all in all, quite an intriguiging poll, and due to popular demand, I am going to write a post on What Women Want, something on which most of you would definitely have an opinion about.

All the people who've visited my blog for the first time in the past week, welcome to MirrorCracked! :D And thanks everyone for your support during my time of illness, I am truly honored to have friends like you.
I am back in full force now, and will be posting regularly and not to mention, spamming all your blogs with my insane comments! :D

Cheers! :D

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I was bored to death today, searching aimlessly for a new theme for the site, trying in vain to purchase the domain name and realizing that a debit card is not a credit card, yawning every three minutes, scratching my face and my head and my back loud enough to annoy others around me and, every now and then, texting song request to the radio station. There was absolutely nothing of importance to do at work today, and I felt like going back home to the warm comfort of my bed, the blue blanket, the soft pillows, the England-South Africa test match and a warm cup of tea. If wishes were horses, I'd have a stable by now.

One thing of interest that cropped up today was a very heated argument discussion debate about what sort of women do men prefer. Er.. Let me rephrase that. The discussion was about what sort of women men find attractive - tall or short. There were four players in this very animated discussion and I shall christen them Hot Chick, Stud 1, Stud 2 and Pimp Me. :D

Hot Chick started the debate and said that the reason she was wearing 6-inch heels was that she wanted to look taller and that tall women exact a second look wherever they go. She explained about how tall women, irrespective of whether they were attractive or not, are always the focus of attention of men, while walking down the street, making a presentation, or just about anything. She threw a few famous personalities in the ring and argued how these tall women were winners in life, and claimed that all tall women are famous mostly because of their height and ignored all the other formulae for success. :D

Stud 1 then stepped into the fray and argued against this, and claimed how he admired shorter women. He claimed that some of the most famous women in history were short and that the average height of an Indian woman is around 5'1" to around 5'3", and any woman taller than this exact a second look because of this deviation from the 'norm'. :D

Stud 2 just agreed with Stud 1.

All three of them looked at me and I voiced one of my favorite quotes of wisdom, "An opinion is like an asshole; everyone has one!" :D

Lots of other people also joined in the debate and eventually, everyone was shouting his/her asshole opinion. Hot Chick decided to take this debate public and asked me to write a post on it and throw the debate open to the intellectually superior readers of MirrorCracked their views on the topic. In a nutshell, the question being discussed is this:

Are taller women more attractive than shorter women and do taller women succeed as eye candy mainly because of their height?

Don't hold anything back, dear Reader. Whatever your opinion (er...) is, just say it! Let's see where this goes. I am just a moderator, and I will take offense if anyone calls me a sexist. Call me any other name, I can live with it! :D

POLL: Will UPA win the trust vote?

For more detailed analysis on this ultimate climax of nuclear deal keep checking out this blog.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Much more coming soon>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Comment at end

25 June, 2008

IT'S SUMMER, GORDON - AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

WATCH YOUR BACK!

Just when it seemed it couldn't get any worse for Gordon Brown with the summer parliamentary recess beckoning and the distant hope of a reprieve for our embattled present prime minister, it has got worse.

Synopsis of the latest Guardian/ICM poll findings:

Today's Guardian/ICM poll finds that only 19% of people who voted for Labour in 2005 think the prime minister's personal style is an improvement on Tony Blair's, while 67% think it is worse. Only 31% think his policies are better and 54% think that they are worse.

Only 2% say their impression of Brown has gone up, while 49% say it has gone down. A further 47% say their view has not changed. That gives Brown an overall negative score of minus 47%.

Today's poll makes it clear that Brown is a cause of Labour's problems as well as a victim. Polls taken before he became prime minister, including ones in the Guardian, suggested that Labour support might fall once he took over. A year on, it looks as if that warning was correct.

Today's poll is the darkest yet for Labour in the Guardian/ICM series. It confirms the result of the Crewe and Nantwich byelection as an authentic test of public opinion, rather than a local difficulty caused by a weak campaign.

Labour's national support, at 25%, is a record low in an ICM poll. The party has only ever fallen below 30% five times, but three of those have come in the last four months.

57% of the people who voted Labour in 2005 think the party will not win next time if Gordon Brown remains its leader. Even 38% of the people who plan to vote Labour think Brown has no chance of winning. Across all parties, 71% think Labour cannot win with Brown as leader and only 24% think he can.

In today's poll voters were also asked whether their impressions of each of the three leaders had gone up, down or remained the same over the last year.

Even among Labour voters in 2005, only 3% now think more positively about Gordon Brown, compared with 46% who think more negatively about him.

Read more here

My thoughts:

Taken alongside last week's poll which showed that most people want Blair back as PM(!) ... yes, NOW they tell us ... it could be a threatening summer for Mr Brown. He may wish that he had stamped firmly on the nasty little coup plotters who had it in for Blair two summers ago instead of feeding them with more and more pointy implements as he secreted himself behind the curtain. Now those littlies have the taste for blood. And knife crime is resurgent these days. SUCH a problem.

To think, if he had confiscated the knives from the grubby hands of his cohorts, Brown would still be able to detach himself from the complete blame and get on with the financial business he was purportedly good at!

And Mr Blair would be taking the hits for what looks like an inevitable slide to defeat, notwithstanding an implosion within Tory ranks between now and the general election.

Still, as his predeccessor must be telling him in his little confidence boosting chats, two years is a long time in politics. There may yet be time to turn it round.

Well, there would have been time if Blair was in charge.

But Brown ... hmm ...

I'm not going to say, "I warned you ..."

Oh, alright then ...

I warned you.