FT.com / UK - Boom to bust-up

T he British have been here before. The descent into acrimonious chaos of Gordon Brown's administration has disinterred memories of the 1990s. Then, the Conservative government of John Major was busy writing its political obituary. The Tories have since spent a dozen years in the political wilderness. On its present trajectory, Mr Brown's Labour government is heading for a similar fate.

History never repeats itself in the detail, but the sense of déjà vu is inescapable: the hubris and exhaustion of a governing party too long in office; rising public anger at economic failure; factional strife spilling over into struggles for the leadership; politicians who have surrendered strategic purpose to desperation to hold on to their seats at Westminster; and a sense abroad of declining British engagement and influence.

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