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Even the Labour Candidate in Luton says Gordon Brown is 'negligent'

It does not give me any great pleasure to see the Labour Party tearing themselves apart so publicly - memories of the dying days of the Major years are all too fresh for me! And we all know the outcome there. It is not good for the country or the economy to have this continuing uncertainty.

But the demands from Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt to ditch Gordon Brown today merely highlights what we all already know:  That no-one - not even those who have had an intimate working relationship with him - believes Gordon Brown is up to the job.  I've now lost count of the number of failed coup attempts.

I don't think Gordon Brown is a bad person, but he's simply not fit to be Prime Minister. 

I can imagine how angry he must have been when he heard news of today's rebels, and I certainly hope his staff had removed the staplers from his desk before some unfortunate soul broke this news to him.

But instead of calling for a small group of Labour MP's to choose a new leader behind closed doors without consulting the public (again), why don't we just go the whole hog and have a General Election?

Even the new Labour candidate for Luton South, Gavin Shuker, called Gordon Brown 'negligent' as far back as May 2009 when he signed a letter criticising his party leadership's weak response to the expenses scandal.  He said: 

"The Party Leadership has failed to take charge of a critical situation on an issue so fundamentally defining to the character and reputation of our Party...The Prime Minister, and the collective leadership of the Labour Party, have been negligent."

Couldn't agree more, Gavin. But it's a pity you didn't give the same advice to your old boss, Ms Moran - as we all remember how the local Constituency Labour Party Executive (of which you were a member) were making public statements in support of Moran even as the expense abuses piled up.   Every time I raised issues with regard to Moran's expenses (which I have been doing for years), I received short shrift from the local Labour party.

But this latest internal Labour party bickering raises the serious question that if his own close work colleagues don't think Gordon Brown is up to the job, and if his own parliamentary candidates think he is 'negligent', then why on earth should voters be expected to prop him up at the upcoming election?

I hope that Mr Shuker can settle his own difficulties with his party leader in the near future.  But the best way for the country to settle all this would be to have an election. Now!