One of the key strengths of a good leader is the ability to work their way out of their job.

In other words, they don’t make the organisation dependant on them but rather ensure that the organisation can continue to grow beyond them.  The problem now is the lack of an obvious successor to Gordon Brown.  The pact between Blair and Brown has created a situation where there is no obvious successor.  No person has been allowed to create a public profile that would rival Brown.  So the Party has no natural successor, and those that may have aspirations to challenge for this position, are not likely to do so knowing they will lead their Party into defeat at a General Election that has to take place within a year.

So we have a situation where the Prime Minister will not hold an election because he knows he can’t win, and nobody wants to take the role as Prime Minister when there is not enough time to gain enough credibility to lead the Party into a victory. 

For a man that has gone to great lengths to make a point that he wants to do what is right for the country, he is now in the position where he has allowed the BNP to gain a seat in the European Parliament, revived the almost dead UKIP and pushed his Party to the worst results in decades.  Worst of all, he has not positioned the Party where a viable leader is waiting in the wings to take control.

Cameron, a Leader in waiting?

There is no doubt that at this moment David Cameron would probably be the winner if a general election was run tomorrow.  However, he is the best of a mediocre choice of leaders.  He was more decisive than Gordon Brown over the MP’s expenses, but he lacks position power. 

All the main Parties are fighting over the middle ground in Politics and the truth is, nobody knows what they stand for.  Cameron’s election win will be possible based on the poor leadership of Brown rather than the inspirational leadership of Cameron.  He will need to be seen as standing for something meaningful at a time when the options available for him are largely not palatable to many people.

Obama won because he reached out to a Generation who had not voted before, had become weary of old style Politics and were looking for something new.  Blair won because he ditched the old Labour and offered a new Labour with new approaches.  Cameron will need to show he has something new to offer and excite the public to follow him for who he is and what his Party stands for now.  Failure to do this will mean we have a weak Conservative Government for five years and then another change.