Gordon still needs a Willie

Just before the PM's announcement of the terms of Second Iraq War Inquiry I blogged asserting among other things:

Any attempt to save his predecessor's blushes, his own or those of the opposition Conservative Party are unlikely to endear him to the electorate, or the vast majority of Labour Party members.

So it proved. Worse, the Sunday papers have outed the First Secretary of State m'Lord Mandelson and former Prime Minister Tony Blair as the main influences on what has proved to be another unmitigated PR disaster for Gordon Brown.

This has prompted me to think about how former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher coped when she was isolated. Step forward Willie Whitelaw. There is a rather good account of his role in a review of his official biography by Malcolm Rifkind published in the Staggers. Brown is of urgent need of a counterbalance inside the Cabinet to m'Lord Mandelson to reconnect with his Party, core vote and electoral coalition on whom his acclaimed place in history will depend. If the events of this week haven't persuaded him, we on the Left should all be worried. As if we weren't worried enough already.