I wonder if Strachan is a party member? or even better perhaps ask Alex Ferguson for a few tips about winning

Very good Bob. Meanwhile Iain Dale is ready to appoint Lord Digby Jones (over Jasper Carrott) as Mayor of Birmingham.

Local bloggers may want to have words??

A deafening silence from anyone else Bob , I think he might actually go. What I can`t work out is what would happen next , a real Party election would show Labour for what it is and lose the lection and the absence of one would do the same.

Should the Party have to elect a new leader it would have to be a proper election to gain at least some legitimacy within the Party. Brown was seen as very much the heir apparent - but if he went there is no automatic choice.

I disagree that an election would be divisive, people who use that argument usually do so because they are frightened of democracy. Davis and Cameron had a fairly intense election process and it doesn't appear to have done them too much damage, and the Labour Deputy Leader elections didn't cause any great schisms.

That is what would suit us least . A Bloodbath now and then still a year to go in which to offer a genuine alternative not emerded with the last ten years. People in the Party have to start by saying what they actually think though at the moment every little resentment and private dream is growing in mushroom style , an open debate is essential and it has to be now . Without a run in Labour could face calamity beyond mere losses .
I would suggest dropping the 'New'. It is not only the economy over ten years , that comfortable delusion, they have irritated and alienated many voters inevitably , with , in my view , unnecessary busy bodying nonsense. , like smoking bans , ID cards ,and much much more . They have also been incompetent but that can be discounted with a new start just as Private companies do with new Management Above all the ordinary working family not in Labour�s Public Sector Constituency has been discarded , that has to be addressed . Immigration is another issue to start being honest about and in general a dose of open speaking is much in need on almost every aspect of Labour Style and substance

So lots to be done but if at the end of it all there is a European style Social Democratic alternative it will always be a force .I do not believe that this country wants to become Sweden and I would hate it with a passion but thats me . That is however the way forward intellectually and politically and in order to start on that route you have to get away from reacting to every perturbation in the Polls and media .
Build from the foundations up and the longer it is put off the longer you rely on cheap tricks like the devolution scam or PFI hidden borrowing , which are just debts to be paid later. If you take the 10p tax the odd thing is that the people who have really turned on Brown are not for the most part those affected they are actually those who gained a little . Its just that this tactic confirmed finally that this government stands for nothing but blundering from one desperate attempt to keep power to another.

So I agree with you and hope no-one listens , I think it will take a period out of office though .