UK press: Brown, 'dead man walking'

A defiant Brown has vowed to tough it out as prime minister after Cabinet members quit and his governing Labour Party has suffered an electoral meltdown.

According to various newspaper editorials, Brown was badly wounded in the fight over saving his job.

"Gordon Brown is like a wounded bull... proud, defiant and seemingly unaware of the blades driven deep within his shoulder blades," wrote the tabloid The Sun.

"For all the dire labels of a 'dead man walking,' he is still walking."

The tabloid said Brown needed to rally his new Cabinet and get them working, rather than mulling over plots about putting his leadership "properly to the test" later this year.

The Financial Times said time had run out on the prime minister.

"At the end of the worst week in his political life, Gordon Brown is still standing -- just. The question is whether he can still govern," the broadsheet said.

"He has failed to reassert his authority in the Cabinet reshuffle. He faces humiliation in the European elections. He should show he commands a clear majority in his party or step down and clear the way for a general election."

Of the reshuffle, the Times said "the correct technical term was a suicide pact. An exercise in insurrection management."

It was a hasty exercise that showed the government was "paralyzed, with a weak prime minister presiding over a Cabinet that has declined to show any steel."

Even the staunchly Labour-supporting Daily Mirror said: "Brown has a mountain to climb if he is to convince voters that Labour is on their side and worth voting for."

The reshuffle "smacked of expediency and was not the radical surgery we had expected and the country deserved."

The Daily Mail said Brown was now "a deeply compromised figure who will have been severely wounded."

The Guardian wondered if there had "ever been a more depressing day for progressive politics."

"Gordon Brown showed the extraordinary resilience that may yet save his job -- but that may not be enough to prevent calamity when the election comes," said the liberal daily.

"The surviving members of the Cabinet are now locked together like hostages, although whether Mr. Brown is the ringleader or the victim is disputable."