Hoist with his own petard

There has been a certain amount of hand wringing recently in the commons and the political press about Gordon Brown. We are told that Gordon needs to do something to revive the flagging fortunes of New Labour. And that after showing signs of toning down unpopular Blairite 'reforms' its now full steam ahead with the Blairite 'reform' agenda.

But Gordon has no room for manouvre. He was the co-architect of New Labour which essentially is about following a reactionary right wing free market agenda. Labour is no longer a party of the centre-left or even the centre. It is a party of the centre-right. Even some Labour MPs seem not to have grasped this yet.

So where is there for Gordon to go? He has nailed his colours firmly to the mast of big business and the CBI. But there lies his problem - for no matter what he does to appease New Labour's pals and paymasters they will never be satisfied. Hence the recent climb-down by Alastair darling on non-domicile taxation. The CBI know that if Gordon won't deliver for them the Tories will anyway - so they can continue to put the boot in with impunity. All Gordon can do is squirm - all the way to defeat at the next general election.