Would Hitler have been defeated if Churchill had died in 1938? Would the Bolsheviks have come to power if Lenin had not been in St Petersburg in 1917? Would Dec be where he is today if he had not met Ant? These are the the sorts of questions that Marxists grapple with when trying to distinguish between broad historical trends and individual events.

It’s true that at certain moments individuals can unexpectedly play a decisive role but they are always limited by the circumstances in which they find themselves. It’s also true that the most unlikely people can find themselves in the middle of events despite having built a career on toadyism and vacuity. A situation in which anyone outside her own social circle and family is faintly interested in what Hazel Blears has to say about anything is unusual enough. Suddenly a few hundred words of neo-liberal phrase mongering about “more choice within public services”, “tackling street gangs” and getting  people off benefits and into work is a body blow to Gordon Brown’s credibility and has dominated the British news for an entire day.

That someone who has never expressed an idea outside the New Labour consensus and insists on the need for “public-service reforms” can create this sort of hysteria by suggesting that Brown’s bizarre Youtube appearance needs to be supplemented by knocking on doors shows two things. The first is that the press is treating Brown’s government in much the same way that a cat amuses itself with an injured bird. It’ll tease it, kick it around a bit and take huge pleasure in giving it a slow painful death. The second is that the only real challenge to Brown is coming from people who are just as right wing as him and have no alternative programme to offer. Just in case she hadn’t made it plain how right wing she is Blears eulogises the Gurkha mercenaries and mainly criticises her government for misjudging the strength of Daily Mail populism.

Roman Rosdolsky observed that some people can influence history by “either possessing a clearer perception than others of the historical needs of their class, or by retarding the objective needs of their class”. Well it’s obvious which category Blears belongs to.

If you were in any doubt that Brown won’t be in a job by Christmas and we are heading for a Tory landslide Hazel Blears has stepped momentarily onto history’s stage to prove you wrong.