Why were we stupid enough to push out Blair? Not many of us agreed with everything he did, but still- the most talented politician of a generation, and one who, despite his flaws, gave the genuine impression that he believed something. Even in his darkest days, his support rarely dipped below 30% because at the end of the day, even his most vocal opponents had a grudging respect for him, and a lot of us, as much as we hated ourselves for it, still quite liked the guy.

We all know the way the wind is blowing, so let’s make it speedy and painless. My preference would be Milliband for PM, Alan Johnson Chancellor, Yvette Cooper for Deputy, and put Jack Straw back in the FCO, in time for the summer recess.
Assuming Balls or Darling don’t take the reins, however, anyone will do. He should be persuaded to announce his resignation within the next few weeks and set a timetable for new leadership elections, preferably with the new leader in place by the Summer recess.
In the meantime, BoJo can run riot in London and remind everyone how bad the Tories are, and in 2009, we can have an election like we should have done last year….do it that way, and we might just stand a chance. At least we go down fighting, rather than with our head between our legs.

This will give him plenty of time to prepare for party conference and to start talking to the Lib Dems about whether, in the worst-case scenario at the next general election, they want a Tory government.

Once the US elections are out of the way, Milliband then needs to look stateside, as Blair did, and hire in some of Obama’s advisors to bring in the same kind of freshness, excitement and, yes, glamour which we’ve seen out there. He also needs to be using their and others’ know-how to put together a network of young activists at the grassroots, on a scale not previously seen in this country, in preparation for the next general election.

As for Brown, I think he would make a fantastic paper-pusher at the IMF.