Following the defeat of Tamsin Dunwoody in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told the Today programme: ‘of course this was a bad result for the Labour Party but we have the right ideas and the right leader to continue to deliver for Britain.

She went on to say: There is absolutely nothing to say that provided we listen to the electorate and learn from their clear desire to see a change of course the result of the next election is set.

Her view was echoed by Labour Peer Lord Paul in the Sunday Telegraph, who said that Gordon Brown must be much tougher and that although his agenda is clear he must ‘get on with the job’ if he wishes to survive.

Both Margaret Beckett and Lord Paul are right, Brown does have to find something positive to talk to the electorate about, he also has to prove that his agenda is a progressive one not merely a sort of reactive fire fighting conditioned by the latest nasty thing said about him in the right leaning press.

As for ‘getting on with the job’, that should be applied to the legions of senior figures past and present who pitched up on television over the weekend to either make veiled hints about their intentions were a leadership race to take place or to talk up the cause of their favoured candidate.

The Labour Party has a leader; many people may not be happy with either the manner by which he was appointed or the way he’s carried out certain aspects of his job so far, but part members in or out of government have a duty to stand by him. Only by doing so can we hope to halt the party’s slide down the opinion polls and find the positive message that could prevent the defeat at the next General Election we must all be realistic enough to see as a real possibility turning into a disaster from which it may be impossible for the party to recover.