Jonah, your point is well taken, but in Britain, with no term limits, it is the PM rather than the party who has appeared to have a shelf life. Mrs. T appeared to have outstayed her welcome after 11 years, but the Tories continued in power for another 7 under Major (although a good portion of those were as a lame duck). Blair couldn’t quite make it for as long as the Leaderene did, although he got close. What Brown was assuming was that he would be the change the country was looking for. That initially appeared to be the case, but he has personally lost the confidence of the people far quicker than anyone else in modern British political history. It’s an astonishing personal collapse. All the more so because he was the source of the British voter’s confidence in Labour’s economic competence. Once you lose that, history suggests you don’t get it back for decades. Labour lost it in the late 70s and were out of power for 18 years. The Tories lost it in the early 90s and have only just now got it back.

I told people at Blackpool that if Brown did not go to the country right then, history might look back and say it was his greatest mistake. I’m amazed at how quickly that appears to have come true. A week is a long time in politics, as a former Labour leader once said, but all the reliable indicators suggest Brown is in a hole out of which he will be unable to dig himself.