In an effort to shore up the ruling Democratic Party’s faltering fortunes in an election next month, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has resigned under pressure from his party telling them “In order to revitalise our party, we need to bring back a thoroughly clean Democratic Party.”

There are parallels, Hatoyama – nicknamed “The Alien” for his quirky comments – has a reputation for indecision and broken promises to match our former PM. Many on the oppostion benches will be thinking that if only Gordon Brown had been as honourable as the Japanese PM, the Labour Party might still be in government.