Gordon returns

So Gordon returns to work after his tour to Southwold and Scotland for a few days before flying off to Beijing.

The next few weeks are going to be the most important in his political life culminating his speech at the Labour conference in Manchester on the 23rd September

Today he is hit by two broadsides,the Tuc release a report today that says that while disposable income for the wealthiest in society has gone up the gap between rich and poor has more than doubled over the last 30 years

The report also claims inequality dramatically affects children's chances in life, with babies born to poor mothers more likely to develop health problems in later life, and working-class pupils half as likely to get five good GCSEs as their wealthier classmates.

Meanwhile Shadow Chancellor George Osbourne writing in the Guardian claims that Brown's

main instrument for tackling poverty - the redistribution of wealth - has failed.

adding

We know that redistribution alone, as the sole policy tool to tackle poverty, has failed," Osborne writes. "There are 900,000 more people in severe poverty than in 1997 and child poverty has been rising for two years in succession."

Whether it is too late for Labour to turn this around will also become apparent over the next few weeks.Eric Pickles interviewed this morning by the FT certainly thinks so

“The analysis is that it is now impossible for [Labour] to win the election, but it’s perfectly possible for us to lose it,” he asserted. Asked if he thought Labour was finished, he replied: “I do.”

The accusations particaully from Osbourne are pointed right at Brown central territory and his response must be spot on and calculated to knock the Tories back.If not then Pickles will be proved correct