A week’s a long time in politics…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

In the two days between Gordon Brown resigning on Tuesday and me speaking to an ex-colleague of his on Thursday, the former PM had apparently written at least two chapters of a book. You’d think he’d want to take a couple of days off to recuperate after a bruising few years, and the election campaign. But no: he’s back in the study putting together next plans and thoughts.

It’s good to see some celebration of that work ethic in the Observer leader today:

“One side of the man cost him the election. But the other produced heroic achievements: massive investment in Britain’s poorest communities; championing global poverty issues at G8 summits; world leadership in response to the financial crisis. Many people could outperform Mr Brown on YouTube; very few can claim to have served country and planet with his level of dedication.”

Brown is also said to be preparing his Prime Minister’s resignation honours list, which the Mirror reports will include John Prescott and long-term friend and gatekeeper Sue Nye.

A new poll this weekend also shows people think Gordon Brown has “behaved honourably this week”. A whopping 79% agree with that statement, and only 16% disagree.

The new ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday/Sunday Mirror also shows:

Con 38% (+1), Lab 34% (+4), LD 21% (-3).

The comparisons are with the general election result.

In another interesting detail from the poll, 69% agree with the statement “the events of the last week have made be believe change to the voting system is more necessary than before”. Only 26% disagree.

The poll also shows David Miliband out in front in the Labour leadership race, as our LabourList poll did earlier in the week: David Miliband is at 32% with the public, 43% with Labour supporters; Harriet Harman is on 11% with the public, 9% with Labour supporters; Ed Miliband is at 8% with the public, 10% with Labour supporters; Ed Balls is at 7% with the public and 7% with Labour supporters; Andy Burnham is on 2% with the public, 4% with Labour supporters, and Jon Cruddas is on 2% with 3% of Labour supporters.

To see the full results of the LabourList poll, with extrapolations based on regional, gender and policy variations, click here.

We’ll take another poll in the coming week.