"Everyone has to do what I say

except the ones who don't."

Sort of a whipped vote, but not really...

Melanie Philips said a few weeks ago that reports from inside the Party are that Mr. Brown is losing his grip on both his power and his mind. I've been hoping that since the absurd fiasco of the Lisbon treaty vote, his loss of prestige as party leader would carry through to the Embryo bill. As a piece of Queen's Speech legislation, there's a chance that it will result in the defeat of the government.

His behaviour is erratic and bizarre; he phones colleagues at all hours with imperious demands while dithering over every decision he has to take. Ever since things started to go wrong for him and public fury and cynicism boiled over, he has clearly been radically destabilised. He seems to be wholly unable to cope with criticism, and more to the point unable therefore to look clearly at what is so patently going wrong and put it right. He tries to big-foot every minister and meddle in every department for all the world as if he has an uncontrollable tic; he is the Touretter of public administration. Yet the more he meddles, the more everything falls to pieces underneath him.

One clings to these small hopes. They keep the dark from closing in.