Editorial: Rescue him or remove him

For Gordon Brown, the future is more certain than it might seem. Whatever happens this summer, his prime ministership is likely to come to an end within two years. This may happen at the hands of his own party. It may happen at a general election. It may even come if, resigned to his failure and his fate, Mr Brown decides to walk away. Yesterday's bleak result from Glasgow East made this reality more obvious but otherwise hardly changed it; he is a prime minister being rejected by his country and he must feel it. The result in Glasgow was of course very bad - but a narrow victory would have been awful too, though Labour would have been less frightened by that. No refuge can be found in the oddities of byelection campaigns or in low turnout. Nor is there comfort in pointing out that Scotland is different from England. Labour... [read full story]