Orange Party reckon to have the truth behind Blair’s leaked memo, and it all comes down to a Blairite conspiracy:

The original memo, a watered down version of Blair’s views and written in the third person, has Mandelson, Campbell and the top Blair advisors written all over it.

Flushed with success after taking over the Party and giddy with power over the last ten years, the architects of the New Labour Project were angry at any suggestion of changes and now will stop at nothing to keep alive their pet Project.

…

The memo was written last autumn, after a disastrous Labour conference which saw Brown ‘bottle’ a general election.

Brown just wasn’t living up to their expectations. They can see disaster in the shape of Cameron, waiting in the wings. Brown is now too much of a liability for The Project.

Blair has a world agenda and sights on the EU presidency. Mandelson is showing his support for Miliband as the heir to Blair. Campbell is still lurking in the background.

It’s no coincidence this leaked memo came just days after Miliband’s extraordinary challlenge for the leadership. A challenge not dismissed by Mandelson.

I have a lot of time for this point of view, but at this point it is entirely counter-productive for the Blairites to act this way. Miliband may cause a short revival of Labour’s fortunes, but the damage being done by this infighting is too great for it to be helpful before the next election – and Miliband’s ascension will surely just hasten the day when we go to the polls.

One year after the election that wasn’t, under Brown, we’re beginning to speculate about the election that might be, under Miliband. History coming full circle? Is this ironic, or just tragic?