Not with a bang...

... with a whimper is how the Labour government's spell in office is going to end.

Following the failure of the so-called "Snow-plot" yesterday it is now clear that the Labour Party does not have the collective will to get rid of Gordon Brown despite how disastrous he has been as a leader and how he is taking them to defeat.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson did something quite surprising last night in that he named six cabinet ministers who he says believe that a change of party leader was needed and would act accordingly in the right circumstances. Apparently the Hoon/Hewitt initiative was an attempt to flush them out. According to Nick they are Harriet Harman, David Miliband, Bob Ainsworth, Douglas Alexander, Jack Straw and Jim Murphy.

If Nick is right about this then those cabinet ministers this morning must surely understand that they have bottled it for the last time. David Miliband in particular has had three chances to do something about Brown and has signally failed each time.

Doubtless they will publicly profess loyalty to Brown but by their inaction they have now sealed their collective electoral fate. They have had multiple chances to try and do something. Anything would surely be better than the awful leader they have at the moment but they have all refused to do so and so now they are all complicit in his continued leadership.