Results of our latest poll...

In the latest Acid Rabbi poll, we asked our readers :"If the BNP's Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons had a race off the top of a skyscraper, who would win?" Possible answers were A: Nick Griffin, B: Andrew Brons or C: Society.

100% of our readers agree that, if the BNP "politicians" (read: hate-filled neo-Nazi scum) Andrew Brons (left) and Nick Griffin (right) had a race to their deaths, Society would be the overall winner.

100% of those who took the time to vote - a whole 15 people - agree that, were such an event to take place (and let's hope that it one day does), Society would be the winner. It's worth remembering, however, that BNP voters may have felt that as fascists they couldn't take place since they don't believe in free votes and instead are of the opinion that violence and intimidation are a far better way to go about organising stuff.

UK hacker to be extradited

Gary McKinnon, the Asperger's Syndrome sufferer who hacked into American government and military computers which he believed contained classified information on UFOs, has lost his latest appeal to halt his extradition to the USA.

The American government claims that McKinnon is responsible for what it calls the world's biggest ever military hack and says that his activities resulted in $800,000 worth of damage to computer systems maintained by a number of organisations including NASA and the US Navy. British lawyers based their case around McKinnon's mental fragility which they say may lead to psychosis or suicide as a result of his illness. Terry Waite, the human rights campaigner who was held hostage in Lebanon for four years, personally requested the USA to drop their extradition attempts and called for common sense. "No nation under the sun ought to convict an individual whose behaviour is occasioned by illness," he said, "Anyone who has the slightest acquaintance with [the condition] will know that while the sufferer can be, and indeed often is, brilliant in certain logical processes they can become irrationally obsessive in other directions."

If convicted, 43-year-old McKinnon - who e-mailed US authorities highlighting the weak spots in their computer security, using his own e-mail address - could face up to 70 years in prison. The US government has assured the Home Office that his mental health will be taken into account and that they will meet his welfare needs - promises that are likely to mean little to British ears when so many of us remain shocked at the human rights abuses carried out at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and in Uncle Sam's name at various extraordinary rendition flight destinations.

When we last reported on Mr. McKinnon, we provided a link to an online petition organised by the National Autistic Society. That petition was signed by 4339 people and it was not the only one: just Google "Gary McKinnon petition" and see all the hits - it is very obvious that a majority of British people do not want to see McKinnon extradited, not least of all due to the highly unfair nature of the UK-US Extradition Act of 2003, which allows the US to seek extradition of British citizens without having to provide prima facie evidence despite the fact that the UK still needs evidence when seeking extradition of an American.

"What does it take to make this government sit up and listen to the clear public view that Gary McKinnon should not be extradited?" asks McKinnon's lawyer Karen Todner. What indeed; and what's more, why are our Government - who are selected and voted into power by us to act as our representatives and to do a job that few of us could be bothered to do - ignoring the will of the British people and kowtowing to America? The British Government are our servants, not our masters, and as such ought to do what we request of them. Likewise, the USA is our ally, and though we should be grateful for all of the help they have offered to us over the years we are not beholden to them and should not sit back and let them act as though they are in charge of our legal system.

Since our own Government seems to have forgotten that it is the citizens who are ultimately in charge and are willing to ignore what we're saying, maybe McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp has the right idea - she's appealing directly to President Barach Obama. "Stand by us and make this world a better place, a more compassionate place," she asks, "I'm just praying, please hear us, Obama, because I know you would do the right thing." Got to be worth a try, hasn't it, especially since the White House website claims that Obama is "committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history"?

Fancy e-mailing the Prez yourself? Do so here.

Just fill in your details and change the subject field to "other" - you can copy and paste the following message if you don't have time to compose one of your own:

_______________________________________________

Dear President Obama,

You are doubtless well aware of the case of Gary McKinnon, the British citizen who faces extradition to your nation where he will face charges of hacking into NASA and other databases where he believed suppressed documents related to UFOs might be held, activities which it is claimed resulted in $800,000 worth of damage. He later contacted the authorities responsible for those databases and highlighted the weak spots in their security, leading human rights campaigner Terry Waite to say that the Pentagon should be thanking McKinnon for exposing their computers' vulnerability.

Mr. McKinnon suffers from the autistic condition Asperger's Syndrome. Sufferers of this condition are frequently of very high intelligence, but often display naivety and may become obsessed with a particular subject - as was the case with Mr. McKinnon, who is obsessed with UFOs. "No nation under the sun ought to convict an individual whose behaviour is occasioned by illness," says Mr. Waite.

Although the US Government has promised that Mr. McKinnon's health and welfare needs will be taken into account, his lawyers and family say that there is "clear, uncontradicted expert evidence" that his extradition could lead to psychosis which in turn could result in his suicide. That Mr. McKinnon did not act in a purposely malicious way seems obvious, and although it may be the case that he caused $800,000 worth of damage, is a human life not worth more?

Since you became President, many of us throughout the world have new faith that the USA is a force for good that will protect ourselves and our human rights. Please use this opportunity to demonstrate to us that we can trust in your own goodness and humanity by stopping the moves to extradite Mr. McKinnon and allowing him to be tried in a British court.

Yours,

Your Name Here

___________________________________________

...but make sure you take the opportunity to help save a mentally ill British man from an uncertain future at the hands of a foreign power.

No posts for a few days...

Mrs. Rabbi and myself are off for a few days' holiday so - unless something really exciting like the death of a senior politician happens - we'll not be making any posts because chances are we'll find much better things to do on the beach than fiddling about with the BlackBerry.

Labour loses Norwich North

Rather unsurprisingly, the Conservatives have achieved a vast triumph over Labour in the Norwich North by-election which was forced by the resignation of left-wing Labour ex-MP Ian Gibson after he was caught up in the expenses scandal when it emerged that he had used his second home allowance to fund a flat which he then sold at a discounted price - thought to be around half the market value - to his daughter. His resignation was in protest at a party decision to bar him from standing at the next General Election.

Ian Gibson enjoyed widespread support in his Norwich North constituency, but was barred by the Labour party from standing at the next General Election.

New MP Chloe Smith (pictured right), aged 27, will now become the youngest member of Parliament and will represent the constituency that party leader David Cameron visited six times during her campaign. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, meanwhile, admitted that the election was taking place in what he called "unique" circumstances and appears to have pretty much given it up as a bad job - he refused to join the campaign, says the Daily Telegraph. Mr. Gibson enjoyed great popularity in Norwich and many residents have offered vocal support, saying they would have voted for him had he have taken the decision to stand as an independent candidate. He achieved a majority of 5459 at the last election. Ms. Smith now has a majority of 7348, with the total number of Tory votes (13,591) being more than double those won by Labour's new candidate Chris Ostrowski who managed second place with a total of 6243. Labour have been quick to claim that they would have gained more had the turnout, at 45.88%, not been low; arguing that many Labour voters will be so annoyed at Mr. Gibson's treatment they decided to stay home. Ex-Minister Geoff Hoon called the election "a perfect storm for a governing party," and admitted Labour had no chance of winning.

Gordon Brown can learn two very valuable lessons from this by-election. The first is very simple: if he is seen to have no faith in a local Labour party and its prospective MP, the public will not have faith either. It's very much the same as anyone would feel if they needed some decorating done and the decorator's boss told them that the person he or she was sending round to do the job was rubbish - they'd want someone else to do it instead. Wouldn't you?

Gordon Brown has shot himself in the foot - by preventing a popular candidate from standing, he has lost another Labour seat.

The second is going to be a bit trickier for a man such as Mr. Brown to get his head round: he should not try to choose who represents a constituency - that should be decided by those whose interests he or she will represent. That is surely one of the cornerstones of democracy, which is a concept we've grown rather accustomed to it here in Britain - Blair may have sneakily made off with a big sack full of our civil liberties, but get spotted doing anything the British people interpret as stealing their democratic rights and they will register disapproval (you'd need to stir the apathetic buggers up a good bit more for 'em to consider a revolt, though). Mr. Gibson, without any doubt, acted in a highly dishonourable - though not unlawful - way when he used his privileged position to obtain a cheap home for his daughter (though we're sure she was happy about it) and the voters of Norwich North have already expressed their anger over the matter. However, he was evidently popular enough amongst them (there's a third lesson there, Gordon - a significant percentage of the electorate still favour left-wing MPs. Maybe attracting a few more to the Labour ranks might be worth thinking about?) that they were willing to forgive him, just so long as he kept on doing a job of which they otherwise approved.

The Prime Minister has not only demonstrated that he has little or no faith in Labour councillors, he has also somewhat ironically shot himself in the foot. Had he have listened to what constituents were saying - which would have been a lot easier had he have made a few visits to Norwich - he'd have hung onto one of the ever-diminishing number of red patches in an increasingly blue and Tory Britain. The Norwich North by-election should - and probably will - be seen as proof for Labour that, while Mr. Brown leads the party, they cannot win the General Election and for that reason he must go.

Norwich North by-election results: Chloe Smith, Conservatives - 13,591. Chris Ostrowski, Labour - 6243. April Pond, Liberal Democrats - 4803. Glenn Tingle, UKIP - 4068. Rupert Read, Green Party - 3350. Craig Murray, Put An Honest Man Into Parliament - 953. Robert West, BNP - 941. Bob Holden, Independent - 166. Alan Hope, Monster Raving Loony Party - 144. Anne Fryatt, None Of The Above (NOTA) Party - 59. Thomas Burridge, Libertarian - 36. Peter Baggs, Independent - 23.

Berlusconi is only human

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose recent affair with an 18-year-old model has wrecked his marriage but hardly had any effect whatsoever on the electorate's opinions of him, has commented on the fling and what newspapers claim are recordings of telephone conversations he had with prostitutes.

Berlusconi: "I am not a saint." Maybe Brown and co. could learn a thing or two?
Image from Wikipedia, used in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Brazil license.

"There are tons of good-looking girls out there. I am not a saint," he says. The general consensus in Italy seems to be: "You old goat, you!"

Perhaps if our own politicians confessed to being merely human who are as open to temptation as the rest of us rather than believing that they ought to provide some sort of honourable and entirely unnecessary example to us common folk, we might not judge them quite so harshly when their failings are revealed to us. After all, how many of us can genuinely say that, were we in a position whereby we could have a second home and £400 a month to spend on food at the tax-payer's expense, we would not do the same? Personally, I'd have been bathing in Krug and feeding my cat Beluga (only he probably wouldn't eat it, since he seems to prefer fruitcake to the fishy foods typically enjoyed by the feline community).

From The Times...

"...five rabbis were among 44 people arrested across New Jersey yesterday when federal agents cracked an alleged Sopranos-style crime ring..."

Kosher Nostra, anyone?

Bruno star Baron Cohen death threats

Continuing our expedition into the world of tabloid journalism we soon came upon the Daily Express, that once-great newspaper that is nowadays read only by those who collect china with pictures of the Royal family on it, which carries a story on Sacha Baron Cohen (pictured right) - the creator of Ali G, Borat and Bruno - and how he has apparently received death threats from a terrorist organisation called the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

The Express got the story via the Daily Star who, they report, say that the AAMB "has claimed responsibility for recent terrorist attacks." Interesting - and why on Earth would a man of Baron Cohen's undoubted intelligence choose to satirise a real terrorist group, since doing so would be tantamount to suicide? Maybe the Express were thinking along the same lines, because they contacted Baron Cohen's spokesperson who told them: "I don't know anything about this."

Hmm. Over to the Star's website for more information it is, then. Using the page's search function, we soon found the following:

(original here)

That looks like the one we're after, doesn't it? So we clicked and were rewarded with:

(original here)

That page had a picture of a very pretty lady without very many clothes on, so that bit was alright; but we do wonder if just maybe the Daily Star is using the time-honoured red-top journalistic technique known as "making stuff up" and had to take the story down a bit sharpish because Baron Cohen's lawyers got in touch? If so, they may well be forced to print an apology - however, we shall never know because one look at the filthy little rag every couple of months is about all we can handle.

Sacha Baron Cohen image from Wikipedia, used in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

Thousands of disease-ridden foreigners ready to invade UK

Acid Rabbi doesn't often even bother to look at the Daily Mail, finding little of interest in the paper due being the sort of person who likes to make his own mind up rather than a small-minded nimby fascist with middle class pretentions and an inability to form opinions of his own without being told what to think. Once in a while, however, we trawl the Internet's murkier depths where the light of reason and common sense cannot reach and stumble upon their webpage.

It's the usual Mailesque stuff we've all come to know and despise: a story about a woman who could be murdered after her lover was doused with acid, illustrating the supposed inherent evil of Islam and all Muslims (odd that. All the Muslims we know seem to be quite nice - and since a lot of shopkeepers are Muslims, they probably account for quite a high percentage of the Daily mails sold each day); another about a female teacher charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl, thereby proving beyond doubt that all gay people are evil too; a man attacked by chavs who feels "let down by the system" and - shock, horror - news that the Church of England has thrown off 2000 years of history and will now allow children born out of wedlock to be baptised at the same time as their parents get married, effectively meaning that the Church has now caught up with the rest of society and will no longer damn those who have sex before being legally declared man and wife. Oh, plus one article about a police chief being investigated following racism claims (the paper is unexpectedly not surprised that the chief in question - who also happens to be a woman - has managed to reach such a responsible position despite the supposed limitations of her sex) and another about a "racist BNP teenager" who has just been convicted of driving a pupil at his school to the brink of suicide (with a terrifying photograph of two teenagers in hoodies, the Mail's favourite enemy ever since changes in the law prevented them from printing headlines saying "We Hate Wogs") - they need to get those stories in there somewhere just in case anyone remembers the paper's sympathy and support for Hitler, Mussolini and Oswald Mosley's British fascists just before WW2; after all, though the paper is designed to appeal to a particular type of racist, racism is a dirty word nowadays and nobody likes to be called it even if they would try to stop their daughter marrying a black man.

Ever the traditionalists, the Mail's "journalists" do their utmost to keep old customs alive and one example on which they are particularly keen is stirring up hatred toward those cheese-scoffing barbarians across the Channel, the French. Never mind the fact that 50% of Brits would up sticks and bugger off to the Dordogne for a life of cheap quality wine and olives given half a chance, the Mail does everything it can to remind us Pierre's an ill-educated snail-eating slob and his wife Vianne's a slapper who, worst of all, doesn't shave her armpits. Let's not forget the Hundred Years' War either, nor Trafalgar. As a result, they've devoted several of whatever the online equivalent to column inches is to the story of a group of innocent British school children who were treated like "dangerous criminals" because they were showing 'flu-like symptoms before being booted out of the Republic. "Go back to your disease-ridden country!" they were allegedly told - wonder what would happen if a coachload of French kids showed up at Dover for their yearly exchange visit with signs of a highly contagious disease right in the middle of a nation-wide panic-demic? (Ooh, have any of the red-tops thought of "panic-demic" yet? That could be worth trademarking before they start printing the "false alarm" stories... Ed.)

That's not all they have to say on the topic of Jean le Foreigneur today either - it seems dear old Blighty is on the brink of being invaded by thousands of Frenchies "carrying potentially fatal diseases" too. But, just for once, the Mail's not taking a pop at immigrants - or not human ones at any rate. These plague vectors are chipmunks, no less. Apparently, the little devils have been spreading across Europe in much the same manner as Albanian gypsies and have already reached Paris, which is good timing on their behalf because they'll be there to see Bradley Wiggins (allez!) on the winner's podium following the last stage of the Tour de France on Sunday. French experts say that the animals, which can carry rabies and the ticks that cause Lyme's disease, will soon get as far as Calais where they could sneak aboard vehicles and hitch a lift over here.

Bloody foreigners! I expect they'll be pickpocketing, stealing our credit card details and taking jobs from hard-working British people too, not to mention living in all the council houses and putting a burden on our cash-starved NHS. You know chipmunks aren't Christians, don't you? - it'll only be a matter of time before our politically-correct Liberal councils ban Christmas to avoid offending them.

How will you protect your children from the froggie chipmunk hordes?

Amusing Headline of the Day

Haddock in court over 1997 murder

(real story here)

BNP beats up man outside pub?

Here's an interesting story. The BBC report that David Drew, the MP for Stroud, says that British National Party supporters gave a man "one hell of a hiding" after spilled beer on party leader Nick Griffin.

Nick Griffin - with some beer. We hope that it was only St***a Ar***s that was thrown over him - we'd hate to think of nice beer being wasted on a neo-Nazi.
Image from Wikipedia, used in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 license.

According to Deputy Leader Simon Darby, Mr. Griffin and guests were having a meal in the pub when an unnamed man spilled beer on him. Both Mr. Drew and Mr. Darby agree that there was an altercation in the pub and the man was asked to leave by the landlord, but at this point the stories differ. Mr. Drew says that the man was then taken out of the pub and beaten up by the holocaust denier's supporters, while Mr. Darby says that the man then lay in wait outside where he threw the beer over Mr. Griffin, at which point he was "restrained by our [the BNP's] security because he had a glass in his hand..." Mr. Drew is "trying to distort and warp the situation," he claims, adding that the party "have yet to decide whether to report it to the police." Notice the difference in the two stories over when the beer was spilled - was it in the pub, resulting in the man being ejected, or outside the pub as Mr. Darby claims? Was beer spilled twice, and if so why hasn't Mr. Darby emphasised this, if only to make his version of events watertight?

Hmm. Definitely worth keeping an eye on. Mr. Griffin is always, when in public, accompanied by group of rather large and tough-looking men: "I am not prepared to accept that any politician has a private army," Mr. Darby says. Bodyguards are one thing - even we would agree that Mr. Griffin - who is most certainly more likely to be attacked or even killed than most of us - has the right to exist, even if we do hate everything that he and his party stand for; but if it is shown that they really did give the man "a hiding" rather than merely restrained him to prevent injury, it shoots rather a noticeable hole in their claims to be a legitimate, democratic party.

There is no mention of whether or not the unnamed man is also considering pressing charges. If he does, however, it may well be the case that he has witnesses. If he does and the BNP do not, it will be very hard to believe Mr. Darby's claims. Like we say - worth keeping an eye on.

Exclusive: Mandelson has reconstructive surgery

The Archimandrite Mandelson, leader of the Starveling Cult and probable Most Evil Man in the Universe (Darth Vader lists him as a reference on his curriculum vitae and claims he was "the bestest teacher what I ever had" on Rate My Teachers.com), is already known for his chilling appearance and bloodthirsty ways. Some years ago he famously had his genetic code altered so that his eyes became a terrifying red colour; he has also had his skin lightened and is believed to have had a number of changes carried out to his genitals, allowing him to inject any combination of an assortment of different chemicals - including truth serum - into his partners.

As if all that isn't freaky enough, a recent photograph appears to show that the First Secretary of State - who is widely said to have been the architect of New Labour - has had further surgery in order to radically redesign his hands so that each finger is now tipped with a smaller, fully-functioning hand of its own. This leaves him with a total of 40 fingers and ten thumbs.

Don't worry - we're not going to make you look at a photo of his genitals.

News has come in today revealing that Lord Mandelson is a member of around 35 separate Cabinet committees that have been created in order to cover matters related to economic, domestic and foreign policies. There are 44 committees in total, of which Prime Minister Gordon Brown is a member of fewer than Mandelson, leading Conservative MPs to criticise what they term the unelected minister's "powerbase." "It is obvious that Peter Mandelson is the real unelected prime minister pulling the strings at No 10," says a Tory party spokesman.

Acid Rabbi nipped down to Westminster where he was lucky enough to bump into one of the Lord's many under-secretaries who, once we'd finished with the thumb-screws, was happy to act as an unofficial spokesman as long as we guaranteed anonymity since he was afraid his boss would punish him. "It's no secret now that Lord Peter sits on almost all Parliamentary committees," he told us. "He's involved in all sorts of things from those that discuss Africa to the Olympics to immigration. Basically, once he reached ten of them he found he was spreading himself a bit thinly, so he's had the reconstructive surgery on his hands so that he can keep a finger in 42 pies simultaneously."

Acid Rabbi - undoubtedly the finest investigative journalism on the Internet.
Yarmulkes off to Iain M. Banks, who we hope won't be offended at us nicking his ideas and adapting the cover of The Algebraist (having some idea of his politics, we suspect he won't).

Mandelson for PM?

There has been much discussion over the last few months, especially on the blogosphere and including here, over whether or not Lord Mandelson wants and is ever likely to be Prime Minister or at the very least the leader of the Labour party.

This is, quite frankly, the most terrifying image we have ever seen.

Some have taken solace (Mandelson enjoys the same sort of popularity amongst the public as diarrhoea does) in the fact that having now been enobled and made a Life Peer, the ex-MP for Hartlepool cannot stand for any elected Commons post. Others - Acid Rabbi included - are so convinced and suspicious of Mandelson's slimy Machiavellian ways (he still manages to hang onto a political career despite two forced resignations and a major scandal, any of which would have finished off a mere mortal) that we were certain that, if he does indeed want the position, it would be only a matter of time before he turned up some arcane bit of legislation that enabled him to do so.

When asked by the Financial Times whether he would ever consider once again standing as an MP, mandelson replied: "It's not legally possible to do that. I am trapped. I believe it is for life." Hereditary Peers have been able to resign since the Peerage Act of 1963, legislation largely created by Tony Benn who gave up his title of 2nd Viscount Stangate so that he could stand as a socialist candidate. Mr. Benn became the MP for Bristol South East the same year, a position he held onto for twenty years and enjoyed an illustrious career in which he held an assortment of ministerial posts until his retirement in 2001. As one of the all-time most popular British politicians among both the electorate and MPs, he has been given the rare privilege of being allowed to continue using the Commons' library and refreshment facilities (anybody wondering if Acid Rabbi is not being entirely impartial during this brief biography of Mr. Benn and his career would be entirely correct). Life Peers however - perhaps as life peerages serve as a very effective way for prime ministers to bloodlessly dispose of anyone they suspect of being a dangerous rival - have not previously been given the same choice.

Mandelson can save himself the bother of searching though the rule books to see if there's an unguarded door he can sneak back in through, though, because on Monday a new Constitutional Reform Bill will go before Parliament, part of which will allow Life Peers to give up titles and stand as candidates for elected posts. There have been many calls for the Lords to be made up entirely of elected members which resulted in a 2007 Commons vote deciding that between 80 and 100% of the Upper House should be comprised of elected figures. At present, all Lords are appointed by the Government except for the remaining 92 Hereditary Peers who, upon death, are replaced by means of local by-elections. The new Bill will put an end to this practice so that - gradually - all hereditaries will be replaced with appointed peers.

Since the majority of the public say they are not in favour of hereditary peerages, this is likely to receive popular support. The more cynical political observer, meanwhile, may well wonder if garnering that support was always intended and if it was carefully designed as a smokescreen to shroud covert machinations by Mandelson himself.

Brown loses another friend

If one of your friends suddenly decided they no longer wanted anything to do with you, began verbally attacking you and went off with the hump you'd probably just think: "What's crawled up their arse and died?" and lose little sleep over it. But what if another friend then did the same thing, and then another and another and another until you had no friends left? Unless you happen to be possessed of the most incredible ignorance and arrogance in equal measures, sooner or later you'd have to stop and ask yourself: "Maybe it's me...perhaps there's something about me or something I do that people dislike?" Either that or you'd start washing a bit more often and experiment with some other types of deodorant.

Gordon Brown can't possibly have failed to notice that he's not very popular these days, but is he wondering why?

Who could ever be so arrogant as to do anything but, you may wonder. How about Gordon Brown? In just one week, three of his mates have done the dirty on him. First there was Lord Malloch-Brown, one of Mr. Brown's GOAT (Government Of All Talents) ministers, rapidly enobled and brought into Government soon after he took over the reins of the Labour party. Malloch-Brown, once believed to have been one of the PM's closest allies, originally put his decision to quit down to "personal and family reasons" - often translated from politician-speak into English as "I'm pissed off but don't want to say why just yet" - but just a few days later delivered a harshly-worded condemnation of Brown's leadership and the party's current policies which he compared to those of Latin American and South-East Asian nations.

Within a few days, fellow GOAT and Health Minister Lord Darzi, a top surgeon, also signalled his intention to leave the gang. Though he has so far kept relatively quiet concerning his thoughts on Mr. Brown and is claiming his decision was made so that he can return to his patients and research, Conservative Andrew Lansley and LibDem Norman Lamb both suggested there might be more that the Lord is choosing to leave unsaid. Another GOAT, Lord Digby-Jones went last year and a fourth, Lord Carter, has said that he too will quit. Out of a flock originally numbering five, only Lord West remains.

Hazel Blears was highly critical of Gordon Brown's YouTube appearance, which she compared unfavourably with going out and meeting the voters.

A number of MPs have also quit over the expenses scandal and taken the opportunity to throw their metaphorical drinks in Gordon's face as they left the clubhouse. Hazel Blears, standing down after it emerged that she had enjoyed stays at some of London's most fashionable (and expensive) hotels and lined her own pockets at the tax-payer's expense rocked the boat more than most, choosing as she did to go just a few days before June's elections in which Labour staged their worst performance in party history. Other female MPs have compared him to a Mafia boss: "Personally he's very warm, charming and friendly," says former Environment Minister Jane Kennedy, "but when dealing with his politics he engages with a darker side of himself and he believes the end justifies the means."

Even Alistair Darling, the man who stepped into Gordon's old job as Chancellor of the Exchequer, has criticised his leader's style. "We have got to make sure that ... we sharpen ourselves up, that we have a clear message of what we are about," he said back in April 2008, leading the Conservative George Osborne to claim Mr. Darling's comments were "an unprecedented attack on the Prime Minister by his most senior Cabinet colleague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer."

Yesterday, James Purnell - the ex-Cabinet Minister whose resignation on Election day was very nearly the cause of a party leadership challenge, which Mr. Brown avoided by the skin of his teeth - admitted that he had been considering leaving the Government since last December after he lost faith in Gordon and his ability to successfully lead Labour into the next General Election. Purnell was the most senior MP of the eleven who departed from the Cabinet in June this year, when he publically called for Mr. Brown to step aside and allow a new leader to come forth. His resignation letter to the PM included the statement "I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely." That's about as close as most politicians come to saying: "You're shit and you know you are." In an interview with The Guardian, Mr. Purnell attacked what he called Labour's "small c conservatism," adding that there is a "need to open up New Labour, reinvent it and then eventually move beyond it." With Brown at the party's helm, moving beyond New Labour looks highly likely to happen next year - unfortunately, it'll be David Cameron in control and his handmade John Lobb brogues are going to be stomping the accelerator harder than a copper stomps a newspaper vendor in an effort to speed as rapidly as possible away from it.

David Cameron's got a tank full o' lies and he's ready to go.

Even Lord Mandelson, a man who owes his job and numerous titles almost entirely to Mr. Brown, has been disparaging. In June, he offered the PM some advice if he is to remain Labour leader, saying that he needed to be seen as "being decisive. Secondly, in listening to people and respecting official advice you receive. And thirdly, introducing a bit of humour and jollity to your work," which suggests rather transparently that these are things Mr. Brown has not been doing thus far. Advice from Mandelson on avoiding being knocked from the top spot is a bit like advice from a cobra on the subject of how to avoid being bitten by a snake - he knows precisely what you've been doing wrong because he's an expert in spotting weaknesses.

Today brings news that Lord Sainsbury, the supermarket baron who has financed Labour for years and ex-PM Tony Blair's most loyal and trusted Minister, is turning his back on the party after donating around £4.5 million in the two years since Mr. Brown came to prominence. Last month, Lord Sainsbury set up the rather Orwellian-sounding Institute for Government which has since been serving as a training facility for Conservative would-be Ministers, with staff who have been preparing senior Tories for the Civil Service. According to The Times, Lord Sainsbury "found his plans constantly thwarted" during his eight years at the Department for Trade and Industry. "It wasn’t that civil servants were trying to frustrate you — the Yes Minister myth — but after a bit you realised you were being asked to work a system designed for a previous age when the problems were much less complicated," he says. The paper also says that the Institute's visitor's book reveals that 15 permanent secretaries - including Cabinet Secretary and most highly-ranked civil servant Sir Gus O'Donnell - have attended meetings held at the organisation which occupies a house overlooking London's St. James' Park. Losing a supporter of Lord Sainsbury's calibre is evidence of a discontent even deeper than previously thought running through Labour.

Anyone else would have got the message by now. The Labour party is, as a whole, evidently deeply unhappy with and distrustful of Gordon Brown and his leadership which is liable to lead to a general feeling of resentment and apathy. A political party characterised by emotions such as those stands little or no hope of winning any election and Labour looks set to repeat June's dismal performance when, if all goes according to Mr. Brown's plans, we go to the polling stations next summer.