Neo-Labour ridicule and incompetence

Tony Blair last night admitted that he may be forced to sack his Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, as rebel Labour MPs issued the Prime Minister with an ultimatum to declare an early departure date or face a humiliating leadership contest.

...His admission came as Mr Blair's deputy, John Prescott, faced embarrassing new revelations over his long-running affair with a civil servant.

...The Sunday Telegraph has learned that rebel Labour MPs are preparing to launch a direct and highly damaging challenge to the Prime Minister if, as is widely predicted, the party suffers heavy reverses in Thursday's local elections. Read more

db: Clarke and Prescott are finished. Of Tony Blair Alistair Campbell said a moment ago on Radio 4 "With all this going on around him he just keeps on going with the agenda of taking the country forward". Fantastic. We are grateful. Blair will be gone next year.

Iain Macwhirter writes in the Sunday Herald "Once the spell of government is broken - that mysterious quality of legitimacy - ministers lose the plot and things go wrong. The toxic combination of ridicule and incompetence did for Major, and it is doing much the same for Blair."