The Dish

London, England, 3 pm

"Trust is the prime constituent of the social atmosphere. It is as urgent not to damage that atmosphere by contributing to the erosion of trust as it is to prevent and attempt to reverse damage to our natural atmosphere. Both forms of damage are cumulative; both are hard to reverse.

To be sure, a measure of distrust is indispensable in most human interaction. Pure trust is no more conducive to survival in the social environment than is pure oxygen in Earth's atmosphere.

But too high a level of distrust stifles cooperation as much as the lack of oxygen threatens life," – Sissela Bok, Common Values, 1995.

First off, he’s obviously a deeply unattractive, dour and grumpy figure who was never elected as prime minister and simply inherited the office from Tony Blair. Second, though, his economic management of the past thirteen years – with massive Rove-style spending sprees in the good times to a total lack of a safety margin when the catastrophe hit – is increasingly derided as the latest figures show Britain’s economic recovery faltering in the first quarter (albeit much of it a fluke because of the cold winter):

Labour suffered a triple blow on Mr Brown’s chosen topic.

Official figures showed that the economy grew by only 0.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, half the 0.4 per cent of the final quarter of 2009.

Analysis showed that the economy grew more slowly under Labour than it did under the Tories between 1979 to 1997 — an average of 2 per cent a year compared with 2.2 per cent. Martin Weale, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said that Labour was not running the economy in a sustainable way.

A fennec fox sleeps on April 22, 2010 at the Amneville zoo, eastern France.  By Jean-Christophe Varhaegen/AFP/Getty Images.

Only thirteen years since Tony Blair tried to reinvent Labour as a neo-liberal force, it is in a fight for its life. The latest ICM poll shows Labour at 26 percent, which is two points lower that its worst ever showing, under the flaky near communist, Michael Foot, in 1983, whose manifesto was famously called “the longest suicide note in history.” The Lib-Dem surge has not relented but the Tory vote is holding up well.

As a Whiggish Tory, there is nothing I’d rather see than the demise of the Labour party, the architect of the socialist state and the culture of class-hatred that I grew up in and that Thatcher alone helped partially dismantle. Under Gordon Brown this might actually happen:

John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde university, said: “The Prime Minister is in danger of leading his party to its worst electoral defeat since 1918. At 26 per cent, the party’s poll rating is even less than the 28 per cent it secured under Michael Foot’s leadership in 1983.

“It seems unlikely Mr Brown would survive long as Labour leader should such an outcome occur on May 6th. Only the vagaries of the electoral system potentially stand between Labour and complete disaster.”

And I can see how the voting system will become extremely controversial if the Liberal-Democrats come in a strong second and yet Labour gets three times as many seats. In my view, Clegg now needs to pivot to traditional Labour voters and tell them that if they do not want a Tory government, they should vote Lib-Dem. On the current polling, with the LIb-Dems 5 points ahead of Labour, they would still only get 102 seats in the Commons compared with 262 for Labour. Clegg’s case for electoral reform as a condition of joining David Cameron in a Tory-Liberal coalition government will be enormously stronger as a result.

One other critical factor:

The Lib Dems are attracting the most support among 18-34 year-olds.

Will they vote?

For anyone in Alaska to speak openly about the Palins is risky. There is genuine fear out there of the Palin family and what they can do (ask Trooper Wooten). But Levi's sister and Tripp's aunt, Mercede Johnston, has been finally forced to speak out about the Palins' restrictions over the Johnston family's ability to see their little Tripp, Levi's and Bristol's son. Jesse Griffin has the full guest-post from Mercede, and the greater willingness to speak is a good omen for uncovering all that we still don't know – and will never be allowed to ask – about the person now being primed by FNC to be the next president.

Obviously, I can't verify all these details, but they seem mighty genuine to me. Money quote:

Since Tripp’s birth I can count on my two hands the number of times I have had the chance to see him. How is that fair? My family has missed so much of his life. The first time he crawled, his first words, his first steps, even his first holidays! This simply breaks my heart!

Every holiday my nephew has a huge display of gifts and a card waiting for him, and every holiday comes and goes with no Tripp. Today’s date is 4/23/2010. I have not seen my nephew in over two months. I still have his Valentine gifts in a nice display waiting for him on a shelf. And I also have a live rabbit, as well as a chocolate rabbit that is bigger then him (for a few more months!), and a big Easter basket waiting for him. But who knows when I will see him next?

It could be another two months from now. There was a time when my family went FIVE months without seeing him! Anyone with a young child in their lives knows how much you miss in just a few days, much less months.

I just want all of you to see and know that Tripp Easton is the biggest bundle of Joy in my life, I love him more then I ever thought possible. He is my whole world!

Read the rest here.

Tokyo, Japan, 12.53 pm

Dreher:

[M]y alarm goes off when [Anonymous Liberal] writes about "those [of] us left in the empirical world." Really? You really do think you live in the empirical world? Mind you, everybody believes that he sees the world as it really is, but I am struck by how confident people are that they can't possibly be missing something, that they and their tribe have all the answers, and don't have to consider how their own biases distort reality. Put another way, I'd be interested to know what counts for "empirical" in Anonymous Liberal's world.

He stresses the virtue of intellectual humility:

[W]hile it is undoubtedly true that not all visions of reality are equally valid — there is not, for example, a Goodyear blimp floating in the air outside my office window, and someone who insisted that there was would plainly be mad — we should be cautious about asserting the triumphant truth of our own way of seeing the world. We don't always know what we think we know, and we never know what we don't know.