TIMES ONLINE: A measure of the determination, or perhaps desperation, with which Gordon Brown clings to power can be found in the counsel he chose when writing his post-election statement yesterday.
“Am back in my old office!” Alastair Campbell announced, with suitable incredulity, to friends in a text message from deep inside Downing Street over lunchtime.
He joined Lord Mandelson and Lord Adonis — those most pluralist of peers — to help the Prime Minister to draft words that could yet pave the way for the completion of what some call the “new Labour mission” but others have ridiculed as a wild Blairite fantasy.
There remain many obstacles to a “progressive majority” coalition with the Lib Dems, not least the reluctance of Nick Clegg himself. But the speed and confidence with which Labour has begun to navigate this uncharted terrain may just develop enough momentum to make it traversable.
The Conservatives had hoped that Labour would react to the loss of 90 seats — and a share of the vote that would have made Michael Foot blush — with the self-destructive mutual recrimination in which the party has so often indulged. >>> Tom Baldwin | Saturday, May 08, 2010
