Have the Blairites commenced hostilities with the Brownies?

In a previous post I gave Gordon Brown until May before he was given the boot. I may have wrong. You see, he could be going much sooner. Not wanting to sound like a gypsy palm reader, I think I see a pattern emerging! Two former Senior Labour Ministers have been critical of their own party this week. The two critical interviews do not seem that damaging when taken individually, BUT when you look at the targets of the criticism and take into account that they came only days apart, Gordon Brown and his supporters will know exactly what is going on.

If you stand in Downing Street and listen quietly you may just hear anguished screams of "the Blairites are coming, the Blairites are coming!"

First we had Charles Clarke who said:

"Labour has wasted much of the first half of this parliament. With some exceptions, our action to make the necessary changes has been insufficient. And now it seems to me that Labour still remains very unclear about our approach, both in this parliament and the next."

Today we have David Blunkett sticking the boot in over Gordon Brown's pet Citizenship Classes project. David says too few teachers have been trained up to give compulsory citizenship classes:

"I think the problem - bearing in mind we have had five secretaries of state for education in as many years - is that we need someone who really does care about implementing a new curriculum subject area."

The list of Blairite MPs goes as follows: Liz Blackman, David Blunkett, Stephen Byers, Charles Clarke, Margaret Beckett, Frank Field, Ruth Kelly, Alan Johnson, Tessa Jowell, Hazel Blears, David Miliband, Stephen Pound, James Purnell and John Reid.

Watch the media in the coming weeks for comments from those on the above list.

Note: You may have noticed in today's news a report claims that two thirds of those claiming incapacity benefit are not legitimate claimants. It's funny that this story broke today don't ya think? Well maybe not so funny for Brown when you consider that the new Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell is in the above list of Blairites.