My reason for hating New Labour more than the Tories is that you lot have been eroding our basic rights and freedoms, and building a police state by (not much) stealth.

Only way to keep Tories out? Stand aside and make way for the Lib Dems. It's the only option you've got left.

Simon, Brentwood, UK

Even worse would be to condemn everyone to another term of Labour.

Pinkie, London, United Kingdom

Charlie Boy, you have supported Brown in his stealth taxes for years. So you are as an ex-Cabinet minister partly responsible for making the poor poorer in the last 11 years of NuLab rule. I thought that when you challenged Brown you had come to your senses. But apparently you haven't.

M. Cawdery, Portadown, Co. UK, EU

After the debt Labour have left us in, it will take the Tories a decade to sort it out just like the end of the 70's. Gordon boasts of low interest rates and inflation, but why are we still in a mess? Answer - debt an taxes.

David, Doncaster, UK

Labour cannot face the reality that they lost the moral
authority to continue to govern, when they denied the British
people the referendum on the Lisbon treaty, they had promised. This is how dictators behave, it is wrong and it
no longer matters who is leader, they MUST GO.

Philip, Dorset, UK

After 11 years of this Labour government, I am closer to the poverty line now than I ever was under the Tories thanks to the minimum wage and uncontrolled immigration. That’s why I will not vote Labour again Mr Clarke.

Paul, West Midlands,

"Begin the process of legislating...for fixed-term parliaments": in other words, make whatever empty promise buys a few votes, as with PR pre-97, then airbrush it out if (mirabile dictu) the new guy gets in. Pitiful.

David Ball, Bristol,

Why blame Brown?

We are faced with the failure of the party system that leads to twenty something party hands into MPs who willingly act as mere lobby fodder uncritically parroting Government line for 10 years.

Why then blame it on Brown and Blair instead of owning up to their own failure

S Yogarajah, Harrow,

It's true to say the country faces challenges: one of the biggest challenges we face is the bunch of tired failures in this clapped out government.

It's time for a change.

Ian, London, UK

But that fact remains, Charles, that the poor have become poorer under Labour rule.

Labour have made this county bankrupt with their social engineering failures

General election now please.

Adrian, London, UK

We don't need to return to the tories - you have done it already. Taxes to go up 5p to pay for the bankers excesses, all of which Brown could have dealt with. No - it is socialism for the rich, and capitalism for the poor. New Labour - New Stasi - done for.
HOORAY

Jeremy Poynton, Frome, England

I respect you and think you would be a better alternative to Brown. You however presided over a failed Home Office which was allowing uncontrolled immigration and asylum through corruption and incompetence. It is fundamentally flawed even now. What would you do differently to regain peoples respect?

David Cartright, Birmingham,

Charles, it isn't JUST Gordon - it's the whole Labour Party that is hated by the voters. Yes, we want Gordon gone, but we want the rest of you wiped out as well. Why should we believe a word you say; you promised a Referendum on the EUSSR Constitution & then cancelled it when you thought you'd lose.

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

There is no poverty in Britain. I haven't worked in twenty years, have two houses , two cars and eight kids. The only poverty in this land is the poverty of the mind. The cultivation and importation of the squalid and inferior.

keith, Wigan, uk

Clark's emotional blackmail comment about condemning the poor to a decade or more of Tory power just highlights the whole problem with Labour, running an entire country with the oldest, sickest, poorest etc as the focus. Is it any wonder that Labour governments always end with the country broke?

Steven Davies, Cape Town, South Africa

1. Given that Labour policies have left no reserves and will therefore require yet more tax rises, on what grounds are they "best" ?

2. Support for Labour in the country is sufficiently questionable, that a general, not Labour leadership, election is warranted. Not in Labour's interests ? Tough.

D Murphy, Skipton,

We don't want socialism.

david, Bromley,

Come on Britain...give Brown a break! Unfortuntely he came into power at a bad time...to be honest another leader under such circumstances would probably have made worse choices. I think Brown has great potential and hasn't had the opportunity to show it give him more time and be patient.
K.Par

Kayma Param, Turin, Italy

Does Charles Clarke really believe that a new leader would make a difference for Labour? The present government is more discredited than the Labour goverment of the late 1970s - and that was a shambles on its good days.

The poorer people have less to fear from the Conservatives than from Labour.

Marcus, Worcester, UK

Frightening that ex cabinet minister cannot 'see' reality.

UK is in bad way. Reckless spending, huge debts, spin, lying over Iraq and having adventurer Blair as PM.
UK needs desperately, dedicated, talented, HONEST leader.
New politics. New thinking.

Leigh Vernier, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

What Charles Clark wants is a return to Blairism.
He has no chance.
Most people have seen thru the smoke and mirrors that Blaire and his followers surrounded themselves in. That includes you Charles Clark.

nilsey105, wigan, england Uk

Funny - ironic, the ex NUS leader has spilled the beans. Zero interest in the people just power. What a shame Pol Pot never got hold of you Clark , in which case generations would be laughing at things described as ears preserved in alcohol, the symbol of western intellect!

Tom Howard, Bordeaux, France

I thought I'd remind the voters of Norwich South of your part in putting the Identity Cards Act 2006 onto the statute books.

This vile betrayal of the British People will never be forgotten.

Considering your tiny majority (You - 15,904, Lib Dems - 12,251), your opinions won't mean much after 2010.

Brian Drury, London Colney, England

You really do'nt like Brown do you Charles?
The Poor in this country have had a decade of labour power, and guess what?
They are poorer now than they were in the days when things were only going to get better.
This is just political bile, thrown up to see where it lands.

katherine langton, blackburn,

"and should then begin the process of legislating, preferably on a free vote, for fixed-term parliaments."

Absolutely not! That would make us like the USA where they are in perpetual election mode.

Ian, sheffield, uk

Charles Clark has no moral or intellectual authority to tell us what is best for the country.
In a normal society, what he is doing would amount to treason.

Dorris, London, UK

There are two distinct levels of denial here. One is to think that after a year Brown has hidden depths we simply haven't discovered - silly us - and the second is to imagine that after a century of failure, socialism still has a secret plan to save us all. Also undiscovered?

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA