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Howard's Way.... a weekly column from the Rt. Hon. Michael Howard QC. MP. 

11 June 2009

Last week’s elections were a disaster for the Labour Party.

The Conservatives, naturally, won both the County Council and the European elections very comfortably. UKIP and the Greens did well. The Liberal Democrats did not. And Labour had, by a big margin, it’s worst ever result.

So congratulations to all those who were elected. There is no greater privilege than to represent your fellow citizens in a democratically elected assembly, be it a Parliament or a local authority. And commiserations to all who fought the good fight but were, on this occasion, unsuccessful. Many of them will want to fight again.

In between the actual voting and the announcement of the results came Gordon Brown’s Cabinet reshuffle. I can say without hesitation that the result is the weakest Cabinet in my lifetime.

We live at a time of great economic peril. The challenges facing our country – and others – are immense. Unemployment is still rising and will, I fear, continue to do so for some time yet. The recession is far from over.

Yet we, alone among developed countries, have a lame duck Government. And not only a lame duck Government. We have a Prime Minister clinging by what is left of his much chewed fingernails to the vestiges of office. And now we have this dismal Cabinet. It is a grim state of affairs.

Unfortunately I can see no early end to this tragic state of affairs. Labour still has a large majority in the House of Commons. If their Members of Parliament are prepared to continue to back Gordon Brown I see no reason why he can’t limp on until next May.

It is of course not at all what the country needs. What we need is a General Election so that the people of our country can have their say and invest a new Government with the authority it needs to tackle our problems with energy and vigour.

I say this despite the fact that it would bring my parliamentary career to an early end. It is what the country clearly needs. It is a tragedy of the highest order that it looks as though we are not going to get one.