All collapsing around his ears?

The heat is being turned up on the dreadful Gordon Brown; Geoff Hoon (Gordon Brown's first Chief Whip) and Patricia Hewitt are contacting all Labour MPs by email (and letter) and therefore the media, calling for a secret ballot of Labour MPs to resolve the issue of Gordon Brown's leadership "once and for all". All the predictable arguments are being made by supporters and opponents of Gordon Brown and the Number 10 spin machine and attack dogs are on manoeuvres.

Meanwhile Charles Clarke and Frank Field are publicly supporting the call for a secret ballot whilst Geraldine Smith is attacking the calls and Kevin Maguire is doing his usual act of defending Labour, attacking the Tories and Geoff Hoon & Patricia Hewitt and of course ignoring the destabilising of Tony Blair that Gordon Brown indulged in for well over five years.

Here's the text of the email/letter:

"Dear Colleague,

As we move towards a General Election it remains the case that the Parliamentary Labour Party is deeply divided over the question of the leadership. Many colleagues have expressed their frustration at the way in which this question is affecting our political performance. We have therefore come to the conclusion that the only way to resolve this issue would be to allow every member to express their view in a secret ballot.

This could be done quickly and with minimum disruption to the work of MPs and the Government. Whatever the outcome the whole of the party could then go forward, knowing that this matter had been sorted out once and for all.

Strong supporters of the Prime Minister should have no difficulty in backing this approach. There is a risk otherwise that the persistent background briefing and grumbling could continue up to and possibly through the election campaign, affecting our ability to concentrate all of our energies on getting our real message across.

Equally those who want change, should they lose such a vote, would be expected by the majority of the PLP to devote all of their efforts to winning the election. The implications of such a vote would be clear – everyone would be bound to support the result.

This is a clear opportunity to finally lay this matter to rest. The continued speculation and uncertainty is allowing our opponents to portray us as dispirited and disunited. It is damaging our ability to set out our strong case to the electorate. It is giving our political opponents an easy target.

In what will inevitably be a difficult and demanding election campaign, we must have a determined and united parliamentary party. It is our job to lead the fight against our political opponents. We can only do that if we resolve these distractions. We hope that you will support this proposal.

Yours fraternally,

Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt"

I wonder if we are now witnessing the death of this Labour government as whenever they get some positive news it is overshadowed by another piece of negative news.