Field backs Widdecombe for speaker

The race for speaker will grab our attention on Monday and Frank Field who himself withdrew from the race is backing rather strangely Ann Widdecombe in the Telegraph this morning.

His rational is that after the events of the last few weeks,the next holder of the position has to be whiter than white

I am well aware that she has drawbacks. But she has two advantages that none of the other candidates possess. She is whiter than white on the expenses front – and she is the one person who finds it easy to talk to the mass audience outside the House of Commons.

and adds that

in the year between now and when she retires, she is the candidate most likely to be able to re-establish a political bridgehead with our electorates. A cleaned-up Parliament will therefore be able to elect a new Speaker. She is also the only candidate under whom MPs know they won't be able to get away with some of the behaviour – let alone the excesses – that has been offered up by our expenses system.

You know he may just be right

War breaks out in the Labour Party.

Nick Robinson describes it as "an extraordinary on the record briefing."

Ed Balls has accused Frank Field as trying to bring down the Prime Minister as well as describing him as a loner and as being dishonourable.

Of course all this is simply providing more ammunition for the opposition parties.Nick Clegg has already described ministers as acting as rats in the bag.All this has overshadowed the so called relaunch today.It also puts Brown under even more pressure if that was at all possible.

The one thing that Labour had in its favour was unity,compared for example to the Major government.Now is the final act being cast?

I like the post over at Westmonster

Will the tides of time sweep over Mr Brown to leave him drowning? Or will he be cleansed and resurrected before the game's over?

Yet it continues to get worse and worse even as the Prime Minister launches his comeback.

Frank Field,leader of the 10p tax rebellion,tells the BBC World service that he will be very suprised if Brown is in charge at the next election and said that he was prone to rages and unhappy.

His comments including the unhappyness one in which he goes on to say

"That's clearly part of the tragedy - on a personal level as well for a party, government and country level - that somebody whose real aim in life is to be prime minister, now has the task and seems so lacking in enjoyment in trying to carry it out,"

are described by James Kirkup as

dreadful, murderous stuff, going straight for the jugular. It raises one simple, awful question: if Gordon Brown doesn't believe in his premiership, why should anyone else?