Mr Brown has survived the awful election results Labour suffered in the local and European elections. At least, that seems to be the consensus among the newsmongers. Labour is still in a dire situation: there presides a deeply unpopular prime minister whom the party cannot rid of, partly because there is no clear, unifying alternative, and partly because a change in the leadership will lead almost inevitably to a general election in which many Labour MPs will lose their seats.
Perhaps there will be a strong economic recovery just before May next year, and Mr Brown’s stewardship of the economy will be vindicated. Perhaps there will be very bad scandals among the Tories. Perhaps many Britons will scrutinize the Conservatives more because they are the likelier to form the next government, and decide that they don’t like the Tories. But these scenarios are unlikely, at the moment.
If he continues as he has done before, then there is little hope for Labour. He apparently has promised to change and amend his style and demeanour: will we see a different Mr Brown?