Farewell to the alternative

I wasn't surprised or shocked by Andrew Smith's resignation from the Cabinet - there'd been enough briefing against him in the press for the last couple of weeks that it was only a question of whether he would jump, or merely wait to be pushed - but I'm a bit annoyed by it, because it's probably ended another of my (infallibly inaccurate) political predictions.

You see, I saw Smith as being the John Major of New Labour. He'd seemed to have risen without trace, the sort of person who'd got into the Cabinet without anyone else really noticing - you had the feeling that there were likely members of his close family who didn't realise he was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. I could foresee a situation in some post-Blair world where he, like John Major before him, could rise almost effortlessly to number 10 when the feuding backers of all the other candidates exhausted themselves tearing the others down, leaving him the last man standing, the compromise, the man who offended no one ready to take the prize.

Oh well, time to find another semi-anonymous member of the cabinet then. Prime Minister Paul Murphy, anyone?