Are No.2s Always Brown?

According to Jack Straw on Andrew Marr’s show this morning "Gordon Brown was elected by acclamation." Now this is not as an MP, where his majority was sizeable, but as leader of the Labour Party and therefore as our Prime Minister. Now the question is did Jack Straw mean ‘with approval’, which is the normal use of the word acclamation or did he mean ‘unopposed election win’? Of course if it was the latter he was absolutely correct, no one can argue with the fact. But if he did mean it in that way he was also speaking a truth that may shroud some mischief on his part, although he did say that, “Gordon Brown is the best Prime Minister we could possibly have.”

Gordon’s Brown elevation to the big chair in this way is what is doing for him. No one really feels he’s there by right, I bet if you did a UK wide poll the vast majority would question his right to be PM. Somehow or another his position seems to give encouragement to all the young bucks in Nu-Labour who see him as just taking over the herd by some other means than a fight to the death. Then there’s Gordon himself who doesn’t strike me as one of the most confident of people and all this does is to undermine his inner feelings of being the rightful PM.

Leadership is an art and it’s also something that has a huge deal to do with confidence. It’s why I have constantly said that Brown is no number one, he’s a No.2 and always will be; sort of appropriate really….