You only need a leader when you are fighting a general election. There was no obvious successor to Blair. Labour has done what it had come in to do, high taxing, high public expenditure in a declining economy. This is indefensible and no labour leader could win in these circumstances.

mike lincoln, wakefield,

Now people have less and less money due to constant thieving by Labour they are beginning to wake up the destructive stupidity of 'green taxes' on our own economy, No other country on the planet is crucifying tax payers for the religion of global warming.

David Thijm, Stourbridge, UK

Karen Wright because it shows his mental strengh that he recovered losing an eye and a child.

Bob Murray , London, UK

THIS IS NOT THE LABOUR PARTY! It is New Labour invented by Tony Blair in the 90s to win an election at any cost. The true Labour Party represented the hard working class of this country. New Labour supports the shirkers, liars, conmen and cheats who will either give them votes or financial gain!!

mike henley, taunton, ENGLAND

The trouble with Aaronovitch' analysis, is that he expects the country to suffer another 2 years of a weak government and an even weaker PM. The obvious alternative is for Brown to call an election this year, preferably in September and before the conference season starts. He will lose, but so what!

Mike Ganoes, London, UK

David - Join the campaign for electoral reform. If the Lib Dems approached the unions and CBI now for support of progressive g'ment no Tory or Labour majority will get elected again to the general improvement of the country and the issues can then be discussed and tackled on a rational basis

ROD WRIGHT, BROMLEY BR1 2AG, uk

If it were not so serious, I could really enjoy Brown's ineptitude.

Morgan Chenneour, Amersham, Bucks

GB and NuLab are here to stay. Every which way but win! That is the strategy and UKplc will vote for NuLab at the next election. Who cares about the people and the country as long as NuLab are in power to control and micro manage, that is all that counts. Oops as long as NuLab MP's are looked after!

YT, London, UK

The a world-wide problem.. the parties aren't proposing to voter the quality leaders one could expect a few decades ago...

Rui, Lisbon, Portugal

At least Gordon Brown is at the helm to reap the rewards of his 10 years as Chancellor presiding over an economic boom. I think he has one objective that is obvious - to be PM at all costs. Then again that's easy as we are paying - Northern Rock; 10p tax give-away.

Mac, Barcelona, Spain

Ian, London. I would, at least we new he was a pirate.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Gordon Brown's was raised on old Marxist dogma and he's psychologically stuck in that dead rut, unable to re-invent himself. Like the Soviet Union he's history, but only he, doesn't know it.

Henry MacGowan, Glasgow, Scotland

At long last Mr Aaronovitch seems to have discovered what readers of this newspaper have been telling him for years - that Bottler Brown is, and always has been, a total disaster both for the country and for the Labour Party. Better late than never Mr Aaronovitch!

Bill Holmes, Derby, England

Actually, climate change HAS stopped, at least for the time being. It has not got any warmer since 1998. "Respect the facts', as the Royal Society would say.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Brown wanted the raw power of being PM without ever thinking the matter through properly. Just cast around and you will find that is a trend shared by many senior figures in this government, which is now full of intellectual lightweights,

Robert , Hull., East Yorks.,

Logevity is the cuprit indeeed! Confusion, lack of direction and the overwhelming urge to do anything to stay in power. It happened to the Tories after two terms and now its deja vu all over again. Thw challenge is to make the "two terms and your out" concept a reality. Who can help them out?

John Lancaster, Brussels,

THE PROBLEM WITH LABOUR..

Is it not obvious? They...just don't give a damn!

Garth Strong, Los Angeles, USA

I don't shed any tears for Labour, but I have to say that David Aaronovitch has done a brilliant analysis of the pickle the Government finds itself in. But it is time for a change of direction - we need more prudent and less wasteful governance to cope with the bad economic times ahead.

Richard, Worcester, England

Malcolm McLean

The problem about increasing taxes and reducing spending is that it will reduce consumer demand - and tip the cuntry further into recession.

Governments should reduce taxes and increase spending in recession - isn't that what the 10p tax volte face was about?

John Wood, Hull, GBR

It's clear Brown can't turn it round but why would any good candidate want to take over now anyway? The party will be in turmoil, the economy will be in turmoil, voters will regard them as yet another leader without a democratic mandate.
http://seemslikeagoodidea.blogspot.com

Brockley Nick, London,

Sorry. Wasn't Gordon Brown supposed to clean up Tony Blair's mess - at least that's what we were told. Now we learn, from others, that another person (Milliband?) is going to have to clean up Gordon's mess. Does it not occur to someone that this is a collective mess wrought by Labour government?

Mark, Berkhamsted,

Meeting the challenges of future food and energy provision for the UK requires a complete change of captains and crews at Westminster, Whitehall and Townhall. Or a Churchill. Where is he ? Where are they ? What is the action plan? Or wil it be tax and spin? The rest is trivia.

Don, Leeds, Yorkshire

The key to understanding Brown is not his moral compass, an
unreliable and defective device, but the lethal combination he displays of naked ambition and moral and political
cowardice. He bankrolled the Iraq war, supported Blair, and has never repudiated his part in that foreign policy disaster.

Peter Curran, Kirkliston,

Like many 'leaders' before him Gordon Brown lacks the essential ingredient for a legitimate representative - he has no mandate from the electorate but only the backing of party cronies. One more reason to back dirdem.org for democratic change.

Heinz Geyer, London,

Scotland doesn't need Labour or the Tories! Brown is an uncharismatic, insipid politician and needs to go! Tony Blair was much more preferable and I say that as a staunch Nationalist!

Bryce, Edinburgh, Scotland

Brown will not clean up the mess, Brown has never cleaned up a mess. Even when the mess was of his making he got out of the way and let somebody else clean it up, then tried to take the credit. Brown, frankly, doesn't have a clue.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

"The PM has lost an eye..." So what? Captain Pugwash only had one eye and I wouldn't trust him to run the country.

Ian, London, UK

Iraq, betrayal over the EU referendum, uncontrolled immigration, gridlock, rising violent crime, louts on every street corner, illiterate 11 year olds, filthy hospitals, erosion of civility and civil liberties, pensions plunder, tax tax, meddle, waste and spin. These are not "transient discontents".

Kevin, Leeds,

Just bring back Tony Blair for MP even though he is now a non-MP.
Gordon Brown could then go back to the Treasury
There is a precedent for this.
In Nov 1963 Lord Home dropped the title and stood at a specially set-up bye-elction at Kinross so that he could become both MP and Prime Minister.

Michael Blatchford, Bath , UK

Brown has always played on his great intelligence, his clever tax wheezes, giving away whilst taking more. This worked in boom times and wasn't difficult to do. Ask the question where has all the money gone Gordon? wasted on higher salaries and pensions in the public sector. He has no answers!

John, Manchester,

Punitive UK tax measures on 6 year old Ford Mondeo's will have absolutely zero effect on global warming. The impact on Brown's increasingly tenuous hold on power will, however , be a lot more effective.

The electorate are not as stupid as Brown would have his stupefied cabinet believe.

Digby James, Windsor, Berks

These shortcoming were being hatched under Blair, the difference is that Blair WAS 'tricksier' than Brown. Not Mr Bean but Corporal Jones, "Don't panic, don't panic". Not steel but the detritus at the top of the melt; NuLabour is a metaphor for a simile inside an enigma disappearing up a rope!

Malcolm Turner, Alsager, England

The emporer has no clothes.........................

Politicians should realise that people have lives to live and just want a government that can manage basic services for a reasonable amount of tax.

You've just got to ask - whats reasonable?? not the present amount of tax thats for sure.

Rob, letchworth,

Now they want more pay...! We want Post Ofices AND cost savings, cars AND little environmental impact. It's like being told by an expensive tax-reduction adviser to just earn less! The Government is paid to solve problems, not lazily eliminate them. If they can't do that job they should leave.

Graham Rounce, London, England

"Gordon Brown must clean up the mess"

Gordon Brown is a messer....NOT a cleaner. It's important to know the difference. A cleaner may clean up a mess, but a messer will make a greater mess trying to clean up the mess that he just made...or any other mess.
Great Britain needs a Great Cleaner!

Garth Strong, Los Angeles, USA

Gordon Brown has not "lost an eye" - How ridiculous to say that.
He has lost the vision in one eye.

What has this to do with the above story anyway?

Karen Wright, Wallasey, UK

"original ur-"? I wonder what Aaronovitch thinks "ur" means...

David McGregor, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia

These people conclusively proved their arrogance and political inepitude last October when they raised David Cameron to preferred Prime Minister status in the space of a week. Any Blairite would be a better replacement.

Lucy Diamond, Melbourne, Australia

This is the first time that Aaronovitch has got it right - ever - in his analysis of what is wrong with Labour and why the Conservatives will win the next General Election.

Keep up the good work David!

Diablo, Chesterfield, England

Can't someone string together a couple of jokes a day for him to roll out and keep the punters happy?

Not a big ask, surely

mike, London,

The PM has lost an eye, and a child. I think he has great mental strength to recover from this blow.

Bob Murray , London, UK

As many of us suspected at the time, Brown was determined to have the top job because he thought it is his right, not because he had high blown ideas of what to do with it. That makes his petulance during Blair's tenure even more astonishing.

History and the electorate will judge him accordingly

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

Gordon needs to go, he's bad for Labour, but more importantly he's bad for Britain. Labour need a new leader, but David Miliband needs to hang back and avoid becoming Labour's William Hague. Miliband is a prime minister this country deserves to have, and I say that as a Tory!

Jack, London, England

Gordon Brown is wavering about in a vacuum. He can't go back to being Old Labour because that has been destroyed. He can't don the clothes of New Labour because they only suited Blair and don't fit Brown. So what is his political phillosophy and that of Labour now: it has none.

J.Couzens, London, England

Julian Williams says it all. But lets not just blame the Labour Party - blame the people who voted them into power not the first time, but the second and third!

Richard, Plymouth,

His first act was to give away responsibility for managing the economy to the BofE, his second action as was to raid private pension funds. From then on it was all irresponsibility - spend spend spend on the public sector, keep as much as possible off the books and mortgage our future. Now he is PM

Julian Williams, Narberth, UK

Thank goodness for that then - so we can wave goodbye and good riddance to New Labour for once and all in 2010 !!!

Ian Payne, WALSALL,

Excellent article.

Andy, London,

Wow, have you seen the light ! But since climate change has been around forever it will not stop just because people alter their ways. As far as 'gas guzzlers' are concerned why don't politicians just ban the things, anything else is just tax and bigotry.

roger sykes, christchurch,

NO! Let Brown stay the carnage is entertaining.

Zen, London,

Bring back that guy from "The Northeast" what sis name,he that ran a book shop before being put in charge of the health service.
Management,none of Labours team know what that means,good intentions, yes,but in 11 years all we have had is shrugged shoulders,and we have "invested" x Billion."Invested"

david, Barnsley, England

Taxes need to go up and spending needs to come down. Partly Mr Brown's fault for spending too much on the NHS, partly unavoidable world shortages of food and fuel. All he needs to do is to acknowledge that and the political landscape will be transformed.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

Labour's real shortcoming is not in politics but in management. For the last decade, Labour has used taxes as a temporary substitute for problem solving. They shut their critics up by boasting about their spending. Now that the wheels are coming off, we are left with Old Labour. As always.

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA