24 hours late...

Just before the avalanche of Sunday papers begins, there are two must read piece from today's Times it's belatedly worth pointing out. One of Francis Elliott's brilliant piece on Boris Johnsons' route to power, well worth reading in full, which has already been picked up by the Drudge Report for this gem:

As a youngster, he once confided to a friend that he would like to be President of the United States. (His birth in New York made this possible, albeit ludicrous).

There there's Peter Riddell's essential column which makes authoritative but grim reading for Gordon Brown.

No prime minister has ever recovered from as bad a set of local election results as Labour had on Thursday and won the subsequent general election. Gordon Brown has very few options, apart from waiting, and hoping, unless he wants to undermine his hard-won reputation for prudence and long-term stability. Often, with local elections, there are ifs and buts. Not this time.

A final point. Many have commended Ken's gracious concession speech for taking all the blame for defeat himself. In a funny way, this makes life more difficult for Gordon Brown. If Ken had criticised the PM last night, it would have allowed open season amongst Team Brown against Ken. But he didn't, denying them the opportunity to counter attack and distract attention from his woes.

Ken thanking his old enemy just makes life harder. Deliberately?

Comments

[Hadleigh Roberts]

What do you think about "Ken for Crewe"? I's say pretty unlikely, but not necessarily a bad idea.

[Hadleigh Roberts]

Apologies for the last comment. I just saw on the next webpage I visited that "Gwyenth Dunwoody's daughter, Tamsin, has been selected tonight to be the Labour candidate in the upcoming byelection."

Still, Ken might have been a bit fairer. I thought it was the House of Lords that was hereditary.