Pointless vanity project of the former Tabascokid

With tonight’s news that Works and Pensions Secretary James Purnell has quit his position in the Cabinet and released an open letter to various newspapers calling on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to quit, it reminds me how fascinating this job can be.

The news from Westminster over the last few weeks has been slowly gaining momentum with the area around the Houses of Parliament full of sat-trucks, scurrying photographers and gossiping journalists.  It’s times like these when I really do savour being able to witness the true “breaking news” aspect of journalism in London.  Text alerts from news services throughout the day keep a close track on events with photographers and journalists sharing further rumours of reshuffles, rebellions and resignations.

In Downing Street, the feeling of change and uncertainty is being thoroughly nurtured by the political media (damn them!)  While covering the Cabinet meeting arrivals on Tuesday, a BBC producer known commonly as “Gobby” called out to Ministers asking if they were enjoying their last day and greeting Children & Schools Minister Ed Balls with “Good Morning, Chancellor!” (a position that he’s apparently always wanted).

Having counted all the key figures in, the photographers all rushed to their laptops to edit and wire the images, checking wiki pages and Government sites for official job titles and names of lesser known faces.  When editing a reasonable quantity of arrivals, it’s important to prioritise the pictures that are edited to make sure that the faces of the moment get out first.  With this in mind, any gossip, facts and rumours are put to the test to make sure that the story of the day isn’t the one person you didn’t bother filing!

With Jacqui Smith announcing that she will step down from the position of Home Secretary at the imminent reshuffle, Hazel Blears resigning her position of Communities Secretary and now James Purnell resigning and openly attacking the Prime Minister, opposition parties can clearly smell blood.  With Brown looking to be out of control of events, the Cabinet reshuffle was set to be his opportunity to assert authority on his struggling party.  With resignations now coming with frightening regularity and other Ministers openly saying that they don’t want to leave their current positions, his wings appear clipped and it really is looking like a change will come soon.

Purnell’s resignation will at least get all of the whispers into the open with those with their eyes on the leaders position having to decide whether to take a stand.  Following his failed attempt at a leadership bid last year, it will be very interesting to see whether Foreign Secretary David Milliband (a friend of James Purnell) sees this as his second chance.  I’ve photographed Health Secretary Alan Johnson a few times now and have always found him to be a decent chap so I’ll be very interested  to see what moves he makes over the coming days.

I’m not a particularly major New Labour fan but I was looking forward to having a Prime Minister that would ignore the image and spin-led politics of the previous period under Tony Blair but it looks like Brown’s chance to shine will be cut short.

Having talked to someone who has worked with David Cameron a reasonable amount, its depressing to hear that he described him as being very similar to Tony Blair in style, mannerisms and attitude.  If the country does take the predicted course of voting Conservative at the next election, it looks like we could be heading back into the wonderful world of soundbite politics once more.  Joy.