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The instant pundits...

• Paul Mason
• 5 May 06, 05:04 PM

Below is a selection of snap reactions to the election results and the reshuffle from within the Labour Party and the wider blogosphere. It's useful to take a snapshot of what's being said in publc and compare it to what comes out by Sunday morning in the papers....

- the Guardian: "The problem for Labour is that it is now two parties. One party, the Blair party, insists that only Tony can save the party and the country, and that no matter what the polls and the voters tell him, he must stay on for as long as possible. The other party, let us call it the Brown party, believes that voters are disillusioned with a party which appears arrogant and out of touch, and which has lost its sense of direction."

: "It's a reshuffle that has left the Brownites very angry and wondering what their champion will do, whether he will take it on the chin or not. My sense is that no one really knows which way that will go.

: "I'd like to thank the Labour Party Front Bench... but I'm not going to do that either. They were a total bloody shambles, and as someone said in my comments column... 'a fish rots from the head'. It is time for Blair (and Blairism) to get off the stage. The people have spoken, go before they start to scream. We have seen some good Labour candidates defeated yesterday, and they didn't deserve to be stabbed in the back by their own party. If the opposition were not so deeply mistrusted, it could have been much worse. The bigger fear is that Cameron is giving the right no outlet as he imitates Blair, and the knuckledraggers are the biggest gainers there."

: "Tony Blair has done some fine and noble things, and was a breath of fresh air. But however clear and unique his grasp of - particularly international - issues, loyalty to him stifles the progressive project, and allows his supporters to grow defensive and conservative, doubting that any successor can move his vision onwards. To those die-hard supporters, I suggest that the time to let go is nigh (if not now). Resigning in time for the Conference seems like the sensible thing to do."

"A change of leader is a necessary but insufficient step. A new sense of purpose cannot be achieved at the tail end of the third term, by then it will be too late. Paralysis and confusion at the top of the Party are the direct consequence of the announcement by Tony Blair that he would be standing down. Eighteen months on the Prime Minster must now tell the Party exactly when he intends to stand down within a timescale that enables his successor to take on the task of rebuilding the Party and reconnecting with both our traditional supporters, and those who joined us for the first time in 1997. This can still happen in a dignified and orderly fashion."

"By the time you read these words, Tony Blair will be gone. His ageing and exhausted form may still occupy Downing Street, but the reality, recognised by allies and foes alike, is that he no longer has authority over his government or party. Even his closest allies can see he is finished. They tell their colleagues that the experience of canvassing in the local elections has led them to conclude that the Blairite revolution can no longer be completed by Blair himself. The same group of loyalists who urged the Prime Minister to stay in the summer of 2004 must now decide who among them will tell him what everyone else already knows: that the revival of the government is impossible with him at the helm. "Blair is dead," they say. "Long live Blairism." "