Gordan Brown rearranging deck chairs?

[frigidmagi]

Economist

[quote]GORDON BROWN’S crumbling premiership owes its survival thus far to the timidity of critics on his own side. That good fortune ended on the evening of Thursday June 4th, when James Purnell, a Blairite cabinet minister responsible for work and pensions, resigned and called on Mr Brown to go. Mr Brown's continued leadership of the Labour Party, wrote Mr Purnell in his resignation letter, made a Conservative victory at the next general election more likely.

Rather than stand down, however, Mr Brown brought forward part of a cabinet reshuffle that most had expected would be announced after the results of the European elections (which are likely to bring more grim news for Labour) are made public late on Sunday night. Despite suggestions that Mr Brown had planned to remove his diligent chancellor, Alistair Darling, the finance minister will keep his job. That Mr Darling has not been reshuffled may show prime ministerial weakness as much as magnanimity: the chancellor reportedly turned down two other cabinet jobs, forcing Mr Brown to leave him in place.

Mr Brown’s position has been shored up somewhat by the refusal of heavyweight rivals to follow Mr Purnell’s lead. Mr Purnell’s resignation was not part of a plot. Colleagues who share his market-oriented Blairism, such as John Hutton, or his lack of faith in Mr Brown, namely David Miliband, may have been expected to follow his lead. Instead, the defence secretary and foreign secretary, who is tipped as a candidate in a Labour leadership contest, have joined other senior figures in rejecting Mr Purnell's verdict. Mr Brown feigned regal insouciance by describing the loss of a third cabinet member in as many days by saying that he was “disappointedâ€