Gordon's Glasgow Kiss

New Labour lose in Glasgow East. Well I am going to say I told you so. New labour will not be re-elected. Its not just Gordon - who has to go if Labour are to have any chance at all - but 'New' has to go as well. Will this sink in? I don't think so. So effective has the Blair/Brown coup been that the upper reaches of the party is stuffed with New Labourites who wouldn't know a centre-left policy if they fell over it. In order to get back to Labour you would have to sack the entire government which just isn't going to happen.

So what will happen? I expect that Brown will go sometime in the next six months - if only because the desire for self preservation amongst New Labour MPs will be outweigh any other considerations. Who will take over is hard to call at the moment. Milliband is the media's pin up boy. I suspect Alan Johnson would be a good bet. Simply because he is a 'regular bloke' who would contrast well with toff Cameron.

Where does this leave the unions? Still looking for a party I'm afraid. There is going to be no swing to the left in the Labour party in the near future. The unions need to make a decision whether to ditch the party and start again or cling on in the hope that things will improve. But as far as New Labour is concerned - the party's over.