Mick Fealty offers his dry assessment on Brown’s first year in offfice at Brassneck:

It’s hard to think that Mr Brown has just complete one year in office. It feels like ten.

But now the Comical Ali of New Labour has admitted that there are, in fact, American tanks in Baghdad, as it were. He’s lost Polly Toynbee. She makes a defence for Brown’s policies that just sounds loony (but who knows, Jimmy Carter and Herbert Hoover actually began a defence buildup and economic recovery programmes that gave their successors a head start). Then she envisions the only way out for New Labour, why it won’t happen and stares into the abyss of rump Old Labour in opposition:

Here’s the imaginary scenario: three or four cabinet ministers backed by senior backbenchers go to the prime minister to say it’s over. Most ministers are just waiting for someone else to break the glass. An election between several candidates would be no bloodbath but just what Labour needs to regain public attention. Miliband and Johnson would be lead contenders, Straw would go for it, Hutton or Milburn would hold a torch for the privatising right, and Cruddas for the progressive left. Public debate would not be chaos: it would force the winner to bound out of the gate with a new crystal clarity. As for bankruptcy, only a new leader can now raise funds for the party.

Let’s be clear. This is not happening. No such deputation exists.

Those who think about it also think the cabinet so spineless that none will dare. “Oh, wake me up if anyone does anything,” said one despairing MP. Ministers look at one another and say nothing. Older MPs say the young ministers simply have no idea how horrible eight or 18 years in a rump opposition will be, watching Tories demolish cherished Labour projects. They lack mettle, this generation that had it all on a plate. They never lived through years of fighting Militant and forging New Labour. This is their Clause Four moment, their moment to save the party, and they’ll probably flunk it. It should have been before the long summer break: the autumn conference will be dire. The one who dares first may be the one who deserves the crown.

They have another fear: if Labour goes down badly under Brown, a rump party of mainly leftist old Labourites will select some unelectable leader and seal the party’s fate. Better to choose the best now so that, even if Labour loses, it’s a soft landing with a good leader who lives to fight another day.

Meanwhile, the drumbeat of Brownie departures is gleefully marked by Guido Fawkes, with speechwriter Beth Russell the latest to go. Guido doesn’t reckon a replacement will be easy to find:

Downing Street’s Jeremy Heywood has written to Whitehall’s mandarins euphemistically seeking someone for ‘a high profile and demanding post involving daily contact with the Prime Minister… I would be grateful if you could each put forward the names of one or two individuals who would particularly excel in this role.’ An ability to duck under fire would be useful.