A breather for the British prime minister

Following the miserable performance of the ruling Labour Party in the European and local elections the calls for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to step down are growing louder. According to the Dutch daily Trouw he only survived the confrontation with his party on Monday because Labour has no alternative at present: "The fear of being swept away should elections be held in the next couple of months is great. Yesterday evening that fear seemed greater than the desire to put an end to Brown's suffering. 'The prime minister staying [in office] is the lesser evil', said one discouraged MP in advance. In a bid to appease his critics Brown will postpone the controversial plans to privatise the Royal Mail [postal service]. In addition he will finally give in to the pressure to hold an inquiry into the Iraq War. But whatever the case the truce agreed yesterday is highly likely to prove to be only a very uncomfortable pause in the fighting."

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