Of rats and sinking ships

Well another one bites the dust and leaves the trough, though I suspect James Purnell (Labour) is far more disenchanted with the Labour regime than with the farcical house of corruption is the commons.

Times.

James Purnell, one of the few remaining Blairites with a chance of becoming Labour leader, shocked his party this morning by announcing that he was quitting Parliament at the election.

Labour insiders said that he was telling his Stalybridge and Hyde local party that with regret he was standing down to seek new challenges.

The former Work and Pensions Secretary could have triggered the fall of Gordon Brown when he suddenly left the Cabinet last June, fiercely criticising the Prime Minister's leadership.

But other ministers who might have been expected to follow him, notably David Miliband, did not do so. Some were talked out of going by Lord Mandelson. 

His departure is another blow to the Labour leadership as it sends out the message that one of the party’s youngest stars sees no immediate future in politics for himself — and probably for his party.

But it is an even bigger setback for Mr Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, who would almost certainly have hoped to have Mr Purnell by his side were he to launch a bid for the Labour leadership in the event of defeat at the election.

Mr Miliband now stands as the only prominent Blairite left in the field for a future contest, in which Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, Jon Cruddas, the influential backbencher, and Ed Miliband, the Climate Change Secretary and the Foreign Secretary’s brother, could be contenders.

Mr Purnell, 39, left the Cabinet on the night of last year’s local elections, telling Mr Brown to stand aside and give Labour a “fighting chance of winning.”

 Purnell was one of the last really talented Blairites and probably the only one who might have rescued Labour from a suicidal lurch to the left. Certainly he's far more intelligent than the odious, untalented and disaster prone Milliband and no doubt saw the writing on the wall when Brown took over as Labour leader. I expect Mandelson will now retreat back to the EU as Labour continue to implode, even if they win the next election (some hope) or at least force a hung parliament their problems will not be over. The legacy of their years of power will continue to come back and haunt them and no doubt the BNP will continue to rise as the traditional Labour voters see just what it is that Labour have left them with immigration and debt taxation.
Purnell has decided not to face the consequences of his and his parties actions, he's taking the £64,000 handshake and no doubt in time the pension (gold plated naturally). He's left behind a country facing a mountain of debt, a ruined society splintering from internal dissent as the full measure of the Labour attempt to change the demographics by importing voters comes home to roost. A society where favouritism became entrenched in laws marked "equality" but which really meant that some favoured groups were more equal than others. A society where some nations were allowed a more direct say in their affairs than the majority nation and where the minority nations could still vote to foist unwanted legislation on said majority and did.

I will find it very hard to forget or forgive what Labour did to my country and Purnell was in it up to his neck, now he runs away so as not to face the consequences of his and Labours actions, a rat leaving a sinking ship indeed.