The Look of Defeat

In today's political world it's as much about what you look like as what you say. Yesterday on Andrew Marr Gordon Brown looked absolutely awful, his face is pudgy. his eyes circled with black rings and his pallor was shot. His talk of aspirational policies such as the nursery scheme are redolent of a government bereft of real ideas; he's clutching at imaginary straws in an effort to ward off defeat. All this is made worse today with news that there's a shortage of nursery teachers in Scotland, with their numbers dropping by around 10% in the last four years.

In a world where our politicians find it very hard to continue to hold onto our respect it is, almost by definition, even harder to regain respect once lost. Added to which, while it shouldn't matter a two-penny toss, Brown is just so unlikeable. All the talk of being an ordinary guy just doesn't ring true. He seems far from ordinary; he doesn't have that common touch, he looks arrogant when he's interviewed and worst of all he's surrounded by a whole bunch of amateurs – the Bunker analogy extends to the 'Labour Youth'. Almost every commentator is suggesting that Glenrothes will be impossible for Labour to hold, it will be Brown's Waterloo. Somehow or another I think that even if Labour looses then Brown will hang on in there. He waited so long for the prize, is so convinced of his own rightness and unable to accept that there could possibly be anyone better that he'll not go.

UPDATE. According to Tory MP Nadine Dorres a friend of hers who works in the cosmetic surgery industry is convinced Brown has had Botox. If I were him I'd want my money back!