Labor Unrest?

I wrote here and here about the difficulties facing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Now the BBC reports on speculation about younger members of Brown's Labor Party positioning themselves for a potential challenge to his leadership of that party.

The position of party leader, as it exists in Britain and other parliamentary democracies, has no direct counterpart in the U.S.

A British party leader is the person who becomes prime minister, if/when his or her party wins a majority in the House of Commons.

Americans often comment about how short British election campaigns are. When the decision is made to hold a general election, the election ensues within about six weeks or so. Why is that so much shorter than an American presidential campaign, which can go on for the best part of two years?

Most of the American campaign involves choosing the parties' presidential nominees. Once that is done, the American general election campaign for president is not that much longer than the British general election campaign for the House of Commons.

The British parties have a party leader in place throughout the political cycle. In other words, they don't choose a candidate in the immediate run-up to the general election, as is done at American party conventions.

However, politicians in Britain, as elsewhere, always have their eye on the next election. And it is anxiety about Labor's prospects in the next general election, which must be held no later than 2010, that has given rise to this new round of speculation.