The second Cabinet minister in as many days has just announced her resignation from Gordon Brown's disintegrating government. The decision by Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, comes not even 24 hours after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was standing down. Also yesterday two junior ministers in the government announced their departure. A pall of such grim despair is settling over Westminster that it's becoming hard to imagine that the Prime Minister can withstand this battering for much longer. The usually well-informed London Times Political Editor Philip Webster says he's hearing from senior Labour MPs that one more high-level resignation will tip Brown "over the edge."I suspect that at this point the key voice in the downward spiral is that of Sarah Brown, the PM's wife of nine years and mother of their two young boys (and of their first child, a daughter, who was born prematurely and died when she was only 10 days old). A 45-year-old former public-relations executive, Sarah (nee Macaulay) may well have a clearer view of the circumstances surrounding her husband than he does. He's hanging because he can, frankly, and because, from his vantage point, the only thing worse than what he's going through now is the utter disgrace of resignation after less than two years in office. Sarah, focusing on Gordon Brown the husband and father, may see it very differently, if not already, then soon. And she will let him know.
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