Anthony Eden revisited

First, the ICM poll for the News of the world:

CON 45%(+5), LAB 26%(nc), LDEM 18%(-5)

This poll is consistent with those published earlier this weekend.

Second, we now have the news that Brown has two minor tears in his retina.  The medical report attached to this article is well worth highlighting:

According to the website of Moorfields Eye Hospital, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown went for his check-up yesterday, a tear or hole in the retina can be treated in a number of ways to seal the retina around the tear and prevent it from peeling off.

This can either by done with laser treatment, a procedure likened to spot welding, where the tear is heat-sealed by directing a laser beam of light through the pupil of the eye to produce a scar which seals the tear.

An alternative would be cryotherapy treatment, where a freezing treatment is applied by a pen-shaped probe to the outside of the eye.

This freezes through to the retinal hole and, as with laser treatment, promotes scar tissue as a seal, the hospital said.

The procedures may be 'a little uncomfortable but not painful, and are usually performed under a local anaesthetic as an outpatient', the hospital said.

But if the retina becomes detached - as has happened to Mr Brown twice before - 'more complicated operations' may also be needed to prevent the loss of sight.

There must have been good reason (maybe the news was going to break in a Sunday paper) for Downing Street to issue their careful worded statement earlier today, which gave no indication as to whether the above scenario will play out.

Anthony Eden, who Gordon Brown can be compared with in so many ways, in the end resigned due to his health.

Is history likely to repeat itself?