LABOUR ADRIFT

by RAY FLEMING
IT was a close run thing whether Mr Blair's decision to hold his meeting with Mr Cameron on party funding at the House of Commons instead of Downing Street was a greater misjudgement than the way in which he and Mr Brown launched the party's local government election campaign. For the meeting with Mr Cameron the prime minister had to make a special trip to the Commons, which is not sitting at the moment, in order to avoid the possibility that the cameras would capture a picture of the Leader of the Opposition actually entering No 10. How petty can you get? Or scared? As for the local elections launch, it was a text book lesson on how not to handle such an event. The venue was secret until almost the last minute, the number of places was limited, the lifts malfunctioned, the sound system was faulty and the physical arrangements in the hall were ludicrous. The Financial Times' report described it all as “a ballet so subtle and complex that the dancers had nowhere to go but fall flat on their face”. But none of that might have mattered if it had not been clear to everyone present that the relationship between Blair and Brown was as fragile and fraught as could be. Then, having invited the media to attend, the organisers said that there would be no questions. Mr Blair and Mr Brown walked over to some telephones and appeared to be speaking on them. But to whom? Each other? Unlikely.