In the wake of the public finance scandal that has rocked Parliament and 10 Downing Street, yet another member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet has resigned his post. Defence Secretary John Hutton stepped down barely 12 hours after Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell vacated his position.

The Telegraph reports:

While the timing of his announcement comes at an intensely difficult time for the PM, Mr Hutton insisted he remained supportive of Mr Brown. He said he wished to leave Government and parliament for personal reasons.

“I’m standing down from the Cabinet because I am leaving frontline politics, I’m not going to be contesting my seat at the next general election and I think it is absolutely right that Gordon, whom I’m supporting as Prime Minister and party leader, should have a Cabinet that is going to be with him and take him through the general election and hopefully beyond,” he said.

“I can’t be part of that team because of my decision which I have been talking to Gordon Brown about for some time.”

“I believe very strongly that it is the responsibility of all Labour MPs to show unity and support for our leader and our Prime Minister at this time and that is certainly what I’ll be doing when I go back to the back benches.”

Mr Purnell quit last night and called on Mr Brown to step down for the good of the Labour Party. On Wednesday, Hazel Blears quit, saying Labour needs to “reconnect” with the electorate.

Despite Mr Hutton’s tributes to Mr Brown, the Blairite is is known to harbour deep private doubts about the Prime Minister’s leadership.

David Cameron’s Conservative Party appears to be making great gains in the local elections, held yesterday. Check out this map for up-to-date results. According to results available at the time of this post, Conservatives have gained 48 seats, while Brown’s Labour Party has lost 41. Results are still being tallied.

David Cameron, the charismatic leader of the British Conservative Party, called for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to dissolve Parliament and hold a general election during the local and European elections, to be held on June 4th. Cameron’s call comes just days after polling reveals Conservatives hold a two-to-one lead over Brown’s Labour Party – in the wake of a recent scandal over campaign finance.

From the release:

[Cameron] said the scale of the problems facing Britain – the recession, the debt crisis and the political crisis caused by the recent expenses revelations – “all point in one direction”.

And he stressed, “There is now only one way of sorting out the mess, and that is for Parliament to be dissolved and for a General Election to be held right away.”

David said it was “abundantly clear” that the people of Britain do not want to wait another year for a General Election.

The Parliamentary system in the United Kingdom requires mandatory general elections every five years, but the Prime Minister has the prerogative to call an election at his convenience.

Remember when German Chancellor Angela Merkel blamed the United States for the global financial meltdown? She said:

“Excessively cheap money in the US was a driver of today’s crisis. I am deeply concerned about whether we are now reinforcing this trend through measures being adopted in the US and elsewhere and whether we could find ourselves in five years facing the exact same crisis.”

Well, now she’s derailing U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s “global new deal” with the help of the Spanish finance minister.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, last night led the assault on the prime minister’s “global new deal” for a $2 trillion-plus fiscal stimulus to end the recession.

“I will not let anyone tell me that we must spend more money,” she said.

Briefly.

President Obama recently gifted Prime Minister Gordon Brown with 25 DVDs of what Obama considers “great American classics,” you might say. This, after Prime Minister Gordon Brown gifted Obama with quite a set of thoughtful presents. Fox News reports:

The first of which is a pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a Navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa.

Another treasure given to Obama is a framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet.

Finally, Brown gave Obama a first edition of Martin Gilbert’s seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, whose World War II partnership with President Franklin Roosevelt symbolized the U.S.-Anglo alliance.

What are the British saying?

The Daily Telegraph:

British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister.
…
A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr Obama’s inner circle, expressed concern that Mr Obama had failed so far to “even fake an interest in foreign policy”.
…
The [US State Department] official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.” The apparent lack of attention to detail by the Obama administration is indicative of what many believe to be Mr Obama’s determination to do too much too quickly.

Iain Martin (Telegraph Opinion):

Giftgate threatens to take another twist and turn. Alex Massie at Coffee House  flags up a vital and hitherto unconsidered aspect of the row, via one of Mark Hemingway’s readers.

The Mirror:

The White House yesterday denied Obama had not rolled out the red carpet.
…
Meanwhile, Obama appears to be going grey just 45 days into the job – just like Bill Clinton and George Bush.

Also, Michelle Obama returned a bust of former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill given to the United States in memoriam of those who perished on September 11, 2001, and Britain’s longstanding relationship with the United States. Hmph.

To contact the Right Honorable Gordon Brown in order to apologize for Obama’s ignorance, please send letters (as they do not accept e-mail) to either 10 Downing Street or the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. at

10 Downing Street,
London,
SW1A 2AA

3100 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008

… respectively.