Will Prescott ever go?

Many bloggers have been asking about, or predicting his departure for weeks - even me - and still he remains. Now this morning, Alan Johnson threw his hat into the ring and said he wouldn't mind the deputy leadership job (on his way up the greasy pole as it were).

The thing is, like I said before, I've heard so many story about Prescott going over the years but it never bloody happens. That leads me to wonder whether the recent scandals really will cause him to quit. Let's put it like this, if this had been anyone else in the Cabinet Blair would've got rid of them swiftly and ruthlessly (see Robin Cook's affair and Number 10's handling of it for ruthlessness reference), but he hasn't. John has stayed on. Stayed on earning £133K a year no less for essentially doing, as David Davis pointed out, a "Labour party job" rather than a Government one. How has he managed it? Or perhaps more importantly why won't Blair fire him?

In an interview in the Guardian Prescott said that he was "not a forever sinner" and that he didn't think he was "unique" in having an affair. The obvious implication is that he knows that others are getting their end away. Could it be that the real reason Blair won't fire him is simply because the man knows too much about the internal affairs of Blair's Cabinet? Personally I think that's far more likely than the "he stays to keep the connection with working class Old Labour" line.