It is traditional at this point to enter a number of caveats that even now make it difficult to predict that Mr Brown will be replaced before polling day: Labour does not have a tradition of regicide, party rules make it difficult, and there is no obvious volunteer. I say volunteer because, while candidates can be identified, which politician with any sense would wish to go down as a brief footnote to defeat, under the spiteful gaze of an ousted leader lurking on the back benches? Doing nothing is often the easiest course. "His going would be liberating, but such hard work to make it happen," one player tells me.