Gordon Brown- The Final Days

[poliphilo]

Gordon Brown looks defeated. He's grey, he slumps. Even though there's little physical resemblance- beyond the jowliness- he reminds me of Richard Nixon in the final phase. When he's not slumping, he's floating around with that terrible, unreal grin on his face. I don't know which is worse- Gordon as Nixon or Gordon the bob-bob-bobbing balloon.
 
The incident with the woman in Rochdale didn't have to be as bad as it was. A quick apology- yes I'm a grouchy old bear, so sue me- might have got him off the hook. He didn't have to go to her house and stay there for three quarters of an hour while the world's media filmed the front door. First he was snarly, then he was abject. At no point did he look like a man who might be entrusted with the running of a country.

There had been complaints that Gordon wasn't getting out and pressing enough flesh. They should have been resisted. He doesn't have people skills- and a disaster like this was always on the cards.  In one of the TV debates- knowing he'd never match Cameron and Clegg for charm- he insisted that an election wasn't a beauty contest. If only he and his aides had stuck to that line. Is the British electorate really so infantile it can't see beyond the mask?  The outstanding British prime minister of the past fifty years- Mrs Thatcher- was arrogant, humourless, charmless, altogether unlovely- and it didn't matter.  What she had was strength of purpose. Gordon could  have been marketed on his strength of purpose too. He's rude, he's awkward, you wouldn't want to ask him round for tea, but he understands the economy and he gets things done. Ah well, it's too late now. And maybe the marketing of him as a strong man would also have been a lie.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

There's a story of one of the 'tween-war Prime Ministers - my mind wants to say Chamberlain, but I can't find the actual quote - who was stopped by the press as he came off the plane from some important conference or other.

On being asked "Prime Minister, do you have a comment for the press?" he simply replied "No." and walked onwards.

There are times that I wish one of the current crop had that attitude.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've seen that. It was captured on film. I'm almost certain it was Clem Attlee.