adesays.so

Whoever’s behind this knows what they are doing. The plot against Brown is a slickly organised coup, which may yet succeed. 

It’s not been the usual suspects. Barry Gardiner, Joan Ryan and Siobhan McDonagh were hardly regular members of the awkward squad and had all been given jobs by Gordon. Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers have stayed quiet so far (though you can be sure they support what’s going on).  Fiona McTaggart left the Government whilst Blair was still pretty comfortable and had never been seen as a likely rebel.  

What’s been impressive about this is how they have kept the story going day after day. A single letter (like the attempted plot to oust Blair) didnt work because it went away.  This is both capitalising on the pressure that already exists around Brown and playing the news agenda perfectly. Dripping out names and interviews day after day has ensured this story will stay in the news agenda (and all but killed the Lib Dem conference). 

Tonight they started to play their trump cards. The Standard quoted an unnamed Minister of State saying

“For the leadership to present this debate as just a dozen disaffected people is just ridiculous. By far the biggest group of Labour MPs, in my experience, is people who think he must go – and the only question that divides them is when.” http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23555688-details/Ministers+set+to+quit+as+pressure+grows+on+PM/article.do

And now the BBC have this minister (probably the same one) saying: 

There just comes a point where you say, ‘I can’t go on lying’, you can’t go on saying ‘I think Gordon Brown is the man to lead us to victory’ when you don’t believe it.