The return of Blair

There follows an account of events in British politics from May 2008 onwards.

After Labour suffers its worst by-election defeat in living memory, Gordon Brown is in danger of going down as the most rubbish prime minister in history.

The problems continue. House prices continue to plummet, and fuel prices continue to rise. Brown loses a crucial vote on 42 days detention.

Labour is panicking. They know they are facing meltdown with Brown at the helm. Efforts to persuade him to stand down continue to no avail. An acrimonious leadership battle ensues, and Jack Straw is overwhelmingly elected to provide a caretaker leadership. Brown retires to the backbenches, where his brooding sulk outlasts even that of Ted Heath.

Labour's decline stabilises, but it is still looking pretty bleak.

Spring 2009 - the unexpected death of an MP in a marginal Labour seat. The Tories are confident of another big victory, until Labour announces its candidate: a certain Tony Blair. On a glorious spring morning, he announces his return to front line politics. He speaks of his regret in leaving us before - that he would have preferred to stay, but 'circumstances' prevented it. He looks forward to helping with the task of reviving Labour's mission.

The result of the by-election is a huge swing to Blair. David Cameron starts looking significantly less cocksure at PMQs.

Two weeks after the by-election, Jack Straw announces his resignation as Prime Minister. Blair stands, and effortlessly defeats the token left-wing challenger.

He has one year left in office to win back public support for Labour, - and, who knows, perhaps he'd even enjoy a second honeymoon with voters.


How likely is this? - Although it hasn't happened for over thirty years, it's not unusual for Prime Ministers to make a comeback. Tony Blair is possibly the only Labour figure who could turn round Labour's fortunes now.

Is he popular enough? - Even after the invasion of Iraq, he was still managing to poll well. He only really went in the end because of Gordon Brown's scheming. Say what you like about him - but many people had confidence in him as a leader. By coming back after the nadir, he can blame Gordon Brown for the problems, and then present an image of trying to get the country out of them.

And it would be almost fitting - Tony Blair won the last general election, so it's his mandate for the third term - not Brown's.