Watching an embalmed-looking and robotic-sounding Gordon Brown giving his press conference, one recognised one of the failings of our otherwise revered constitution: that it places no bar on a man who has taken leave of his senses still holding Her Majesty's commission as first minister. No government has had so bad a day since Black Wednesday, 17 years ago; and let us not forget the revenge the country took for that.
What is happening now makes John Major's government look like a triumph. We do not need to rehearse here the litany of disasters affecting Mr Brown and his administration, but let us anyway: the haemorrhaging of cabinet ministers, the demands from backbenchers that he go, the withering contempt of former colleagues, the abuse from the feminist "sisterhood", the inability to handle the expenses scandal, the shattered wreck of the British economy, the botched reshuffle, a backbencher walking out and forcing a by-election, a slaughter in the local elections and, on Sunday, the possibility of Labour's being beaten by both the Lib Dems and Ukip.
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