It looks like the crisis engulfing Gordon Brown's government will rumble on into next week, with the European election results not due until Monday.
As I write, a cabinet reshuffle is underway: Allan Johnson to Home Secretary, Alistair Darling staying as Chancellor, Jack Straw remaining at Justice. All this, along with David Milliband's decision not to support his friend james Purnell's resignation, suggests that Brown is safe for now.
Although I have become completely disillusioned with Labour, even more so under Brown than Blair, I have to say this is probably a good thing.
However bad things are under labour (and I don't think, actually, they are that bad - see below). The likely alternative, a Conservative government under David Cameron would surely be worse. The best chance of Labour winning the next election (and I accept that prospect is very slim) is to delay the election as long as possible. A change of Labour leader now would precipitate an early election which Labour would undoubtedly lose.
As for how bad things really are: Sure we are in the middle of the worst recession for nearly a century, and yes, Gordon Brown is as culpable for that as anyone else. But politicians of all parties were happy to preside over and defend a hideously unjust economic system, a system that gives most advantages the a few during the good times, and heaps hardship on the many when things go bad.
As far the expenses scandal: there are clearly some MPs who have no integrity, and some of these are morally, and quite possibly legally, corrupt. But they are a minority and the worst offenders will lose their seats. But, their behaviour pales in insignificance when compared with that of many bankers and others who have been awarding themselves obscene bonuses for many years, as they have brought the ecnomy to its knees.
If you ask me, the biggest culprit in all this is the media, so desperate to break a story, that much of the time it is driving the news. Coverage of politics is now an exercise in reality TV. Thanks to the media, politics has become a soap opera.
I hope Gordon Brown survives, but I also hope that for the final year of this government he has the courage of the convictions many progressives believes he still holds. After 12 years in which a supposedly progressive government has been singuallary conservative in its policy making, he still has the chance to make a difference.
Look across the water Mr Brown: You can set the agenda.
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