The sound of Gordon Brown getting his excuses in early

Gordon Brown seems to have accepted defeat in the Norwich North by-election:

"I agree that for these reasons - someone who is popular locally this is a unique by-election. I hope people who are Labour voters will come out and vote Labour.

"But I think people do understand the uniqueness of this by-election resulting from the Parliamentary events that came before."

So if/when Labour lose this formerly relative safe seat they will blame anything but the unpopularity of the Labour party and its increasingly hated leader. I wonder what their excuse will be when/if they hold a by-election in Michael Martin's old seat, something that they are trying their hardest to avoid at present.