Whilst not a general admirer of focus groups conducted ‘American style’ by Frank Luntz , I thought his pieces on Newsnight last week were interesting . To put it shortly Labour voters and Labour-inclined floaters didn’t like Brown but were either too ignorant of possible successors or too lukewarm about Alan Johnson and Jack Straw, who seemed to emerge as the two front-runners, to recommend them. The general feeling seemed to be that we should allow Brown to go ahead and lose the next election. But this is not healthy; it means that for at least 18 months we are saddled with a PM who neither the elctorate nor his Party trust. We shall see whether he manages to rally the troops on Tuesday with his soul-bearing speech. I wonder who has written it? It needs to be good.