Tom Harris is that most unusual of things: a Labour MP who I have a lot of respect for as a thoroughly decent chap – and a writer and blogger of the highest calibre. Yesterday, he stood up to Gordon Brown and asked him to resign, and he put what he had said up on his blog.

Unfortunately, to my mind, his first sentence said one thing which spoke louder than any of the rest of his letter could. It was this:

If there’s one thing that unites this PLP it’s a determination to win the next election.

Doesn’t that just sum up the problem with New Labour? That the only thing that brings them together is the determination to win, and retain, power. That the only thing that’s tearing them apart is the prospect of losing power.

It is also remarkably similar to what that odious twerp Sion Simon said which wound me up no end at the time, too.

It’s almost as if they haven’t noticed that inequality has risen under their watch; that education standards are falling; that social mobility has fallen; that debt, both personal and national, has risen out of control; that crime is rising; that unemployment is rising. One wonders, if the Labour Party weren’t on the path to lose a General Election, whether they would have even noticed these things. Apparently, though, they can’t be brought together by the thought of making the country a better place to live in – they can only be brought together by a thirst for continued power, seemingly for its own sake.

And this is the problem with the Labour rebels. This is why I compared them to the Judean People’s Front. They’re rebels without a cause – they seem to have no idea what they do want – they just know they don’t want to lose the next election.

I’m sorry, Tom, but even in calling for Gordon Brown to resign you’ve exposed the fact that you’re part of a governing party that has not only outstayed its welcome, but lost its way as well. I hope a few years in opposition will help the Labour party find its way again – and if not, that the Liberals can hold Labour to account for what they have done and overtake them four years later. I hope there’s somebody left with the strength to oppose David Cameron’s Conservatives more effectively than the Tories opposed Tony Blair.

I hope for that, but somehow I just don’t expect it.