By no means everyone in the Labour Party believes that the party's problems will be solved by changing leaders or setting out a timetable. Some believe that the problems are more a matter of policies than personnel.
Foremost amongst those is Charles Clarke, who gave an interesting lecture this morning expressing scepticism about the need to renew Trident or build nuclear power stations; backed green taxes and the completion of House of Lords reform and much more besides. You can read his speech (word document) or watch my interview with him here.
PS: Now another letter's being planned. This one says that MPs back David Miliband's prediction that the PM will be gone by this time next year. More on this later.
So has Tony Blair seen ? On one hand, we're told that the letter has not been received in Downing St, but on the other, a senior Cabinet source has told me that they have seen it - and that in effect, it calls for Tony Blair to go.
And today, the chairman of Labour's NEC Sir Jeremy Beecham, as well as Cabinet minister David Miliband - close to Tony Blair and once the head of his policy unit - have appeared on the 91热爆 (listen here and here), effectively setting out the very timetable that Tony Blair has been refusing to confirm. What they've said is that Blair will be gone within a year, and that he will not attend another Labour Party conference.
This is precisely what many Labour Party members have been demanding to know, and I am now told that in Downing St, they are hoping that this will be enough to quell this storm.
The question is - does it have to be heard from the prime minister himself? That, really, tells you what this story is all about. Many Labour MPs, certainly many around Gordon Brown, simply don't trust what they're being told, and won't unless they hear it said publicly by Tony Blair himself.
They're sick of code about ample time and stable and orderly transitions, they're sick of Sir Jeremy Beecham or David Miliband telling us what they think the PM wants to do, they want to hear it from him - that he plans to go on, but not to go on for more than another year, and that he plans to make sure that there is a decent handover - probably to Gordon Brown.
And my suspicion is that this pressure will stay until those words come from his lips.
What today has proved is that the era of nudges and winks, the era of 'trust me' from Tony Blair, is no longer enough for many in Blair's party, and even his Cabinet.
No longer is it just talk about letters that might be written and might be signed and might be sent. A letter has been sent to Tony Blair demanding that he sorts out his departure and does it soon.
Just as significant is who sent the letter - two MPs who would until a few months ago have been top of Downing Street's list of loyalists to sign a pledge of undying allegiance to the PM.
This on the day when another private document has leaked into the public domain, which will be causing not just red faces but cries of anguish inside Number Ten. the master plan for the countdown to the big day. Amongst other gems it contains the line:
"He needs to go with the crowds wanting more. He should be the star who won't even play that last encore."
To achieve this his team will aim to book him onto Blue Peter, Songs of Praise and the Chris Evans show. As the Greeks used to say - first comes Hubris then comes Nemesis (or as my Mum would say 'pride comes before a fall').
This leak will only serve to confirm the mounting anxiety amongst Labour MPs that Tony Blair and his circle are putting his interests ahead of theirs. Another passage will also serve to confirm the suspicions of Gordon Brown and his supporters:
"...the more successful we are the more it will agitate and possibly destabilise him (Gordon Brown)."
The Prime Minister will now have to do something to shore up his position. He could try confirming the prediction of David Miliband this morning (hear the interview here) that this will be his last Conference as leader. He could start a formal process of planning 'a stable and orderly transition' with Gordon Brown. He may think of something else. But doing nothing is not now an option.
• PS: Many thanks to James Landale for looking after the blog while I was away. You can read an archive of all his posts by clicking here.
