No change, yet

As the dust settles from local and European elections in Britain last week, it appears as though Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be able to stick with what has apparently been his plan, ever since he backed off on holding a snap election shortly after becoming prime minister, in 2007. That plan is to remain leader of his Labor Party, and wait until the last possible moment, within the five-year deadline, to schedule the next general election.

Here is the BBC's report of Brown's meeting yesterday with the Parliamentary Labor Party, where he received a show of support that seemed sufficient for him to survive until a June 2010 election.

In the meantime, Labor will probably feel like the Conservative Party did, in the run-up to the 1997 general election. Still in government, but positioned like cattle in chutes at the slaughterhouse, slowly, but inevitably, being led toward the knives.