Scottish machine politician cries on telly!!

There have been heart rendering stories of a Scottish machine politician crying on a set-up interview with Piers Morgan. You can't play it both ways Gordon Brown. You either protect your family from the public gaze or you use them for your political ends. For instance, your performance allows me to say that your wife has so many charity engagements here and in the United States that no way is she looking after the family. Sorry, the Daily Mail has already said it!!

The new book by Lance Price, which I have yet to read, does not give you a very flattering picture. I get the sense that over half of the Labour Party would be estatic, if you were run over by a Clapham omnibus. That might be a bit harsh but Mr Brown, you screwed up my pension (dividend tax changes) and cost me a fortune in council tax paying for all those Labour areas. I would have forgiven you if Great Britain had pulled out its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The US anyway have been critical about our military performance (Basra and Balaclava, army disasters beginning with B?) Sorry, Singapore begins with an S). However, that would have screwed up your chances of top international jobs a la Blair when you retire. Or are you going to write your memoirs and explain how you employed a yob like McBride?

You are always grandstanding on the world stage but I get the impression that the IMF thinks you are an economic cretin. How you let Lady Ashton get a top EU job is beyond me. She is an easy pot shot for the French. Ashton should never have been let out of UK quango land.

However, Gordon, you are a very determined politician. I think the class card strategy might be working with the dim British electorate. The Tory Party does seem to have been taken over by Old Etonians and Cameron cuties. I get the sense the US would prefer working with you. Dave has never really hit it off with the Americans. I know the European Union would be aghast if the Tories got in. Peter Mandelson saved you last year from your Cabinet revolt but as you are not really a loyal kind of guy, he has been disappointed by your behaviour since.

I think you might struggle in the forthcoming general election campaign. It will be a test of what the voters think of a Scottish machine politician.

PS. Dear Reader, I am sorry this might not be a balanced, nuanced view of a complicated individual but you should read Jeff Randall's demolition of Gordon Brown
in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.

I am surprised that Prime Minister Brown is on holiday.

It is a wonder that British Premier Gordon Brown is taking a holiday and a good long one considering the pressure he puts himself under. Apparently, Lord Peter Mandelson has had a spell of bossing the UK from his holiday in Corfu. This entails "working the phones". I remember once there was a political flare-up during the holiday season and the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock had to make his views known through a poor phone connection. Nowadays, the media technology is much
better.
Let's hope we don't have the same Mandelson/Osborne media relations disaster of last year with a cast including the Russian oligarch Oleg Depriaska.
I take the view that the holidays should be a break for the politicians from cluttering our airwaves. There used to be a "silly season" during August but we are being made afraid by government announcements over swine flu and the possible use of tamiflu.

I think it is a shame that Hazel Blears is not in the cabinet.

I wonder who else thinks it is a shame that feisty northern MP Hazel Blears is not in the Brown cabinet. Politicians spend years climbing up the greasy pole and then in a fit of madness (Youtube if you want to) and it is gone. Blears must have felt more confident of her position when she directly criticised UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Her recent abject apology about her resignation was toe-curlingly bad.
It is a shame because Blears would take to the airwaves fighting her government's cause, especially when there seemed to be a deafening silence coming from No.10.
www.searchaccountant.co.uk
We do have Lord Mandelson in the cabinet. A former foe of Brown, the peer has been credited with the prime minister's survival. However, Mandelson faces tough problems trying to help out the British car industry. LDV has been allowed to crash and the fate of Vauxhall looks very uncertain. Mandelson will be hard-pressed to maintain his current high reputation. However, he seems to benefit from unlimited energy and does not shirk the challenge of appearing on the news channels.

Matthew Parris says Gordon Brown could go sooner than expected.

The Times columnist Matthew Parris, and not a fan of our British Prime Minister, predicts that Gordon Brown could go sooner than expected. However, Tory leader David Cameron and his allies should make the running so as to diminish the reactionary,
right-wing section of his party. This section is a minority but is very vocal.

Well, if the general election does not have to take place until 2010, Gordon Brown has plenty of time to recover. He can start adopting popular policies and a Democrat might win the White House. While still Prime Minister, Mr Brown has awesome powers of
patronage. He is very interested in global concerns but I don't think these play very
well domestically. We have already got Bono. I think if he just withdrew the troops from Basra his popularity would recover in a single moment. The fact that Gordon Brown can't make such a move shows us the state of geopolitical issues.
www.searchaccountant.co.uk


PS> with hindsight Gordon Brown is still in office but obviously not governing. It seems to be Peter Mandelson (August 2009)