Gordon Brown is Finished

Anyone who has been a regular on this blog will know that I'm no fan of Gordon Brown. But, honestly? Not even I thought he was this bad. Back in May 2007 under a post entitled, Never Make Dreams Your Master, I said.
Previously the one thing that people perhaps could say about Brown is they respected him for what he has done, now even that is unravelling. So what are we left with? A man who isn't actually very likeable, who is fond of telling us all how wrong we are and how he knows what's best. At the same time those close to the clunking one have been working double time to try and soften his image, they know how damaging it is. Yet no matter what they do he will never be able to pull it off. Gordon Brown will never a leader be.

Five days later I commented on The Last Ten Years – It was Nothing To Do With Me.
It was after his first speech as PM in which he famously said.
He was to move away from the "cult of celebrity" and sleaze allegations that had tarnished Mr Blair's years in office and that his premiership would be guided by a "moral compass" instilled in him by his father, a Scots minister of religion, and his mother.

By June I went all Oscar Wilde and talked of The Importance of Being Earnest. It was in response to Milliband's appointment as Foreign Minister and the bringing in of 'experts' who would be made peers to do specific jobs.
Government of all the talents my big toe, it's Gordon Brown trying to appear to be all embracing while he will continue to be what he's always been - a controller and a man who is exclusive rather than inclusive. This is not going to be a lot of fun.

By May last year I was getting desperate, Gordon Brown – Back Door Man
People talk of Brown's intellect, his work ethic, his brain, all the other attributes that he is supposed to have in abundance, yet has any one ever talked about his leadership skills? It's too easy to say, ah yes, but he was always been in Tony's shadow, but he’s had time to do his own thing and he’s been found wanting. No matter what Brown does he has not the charisma, the charm, the interpersonal skills - that special something that leaders have and those who are their number's two's always think they have - that's GB's biggest problem and always will be. He thinks he's cleverer than everyone around him, which he might well be in intellectual terms, but IQ, brainpower, cleverness, and being a bit of a know it all will never out trump someone who has that special something. Like it or not Blair had it and Brown will forever be the man in search of it.

In the same month I was asking if he was Standing on the Shoulders of Midgets.
Twenty-five years ago I was on a plane somewhere over America when I picked up a copy of Time magazine with Ronald Reagan’s picture on the cover. The lead article was about Reagan’s style of managing his team. He said, “Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out.” It’s the total antithesis of what Gordon Brown is about and it’s why he can’t hack it. As a No.2 his power was based upon tripping people up on the detail, as a No.1 it’s his Achilles heal. He just doesn’t have what it takes to be a leader and the more that the young guns defend him it only highlights what’s wrong with his leadership.

By June it was another question. Are No.2s Always Brown?
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….

By July 2008 I was loosing it Gordon Brown, Superstar

“Gordon Brown, Gordon Brown
Who are you, what have you sacrificed
Gordon Brown, Superstar

Do you think you're what you say you are?”

Gordon Brown is no superstar; he’s just damaged goods.

At the Labour Party Conference in the autumn I noted that Gordon Brown was Like A Worn Out Record
"This is not about rhetoric", says the Prime Minister. It's not? That's what this and his entire government is based upon. He doesn't do leadership; he does talking. Politics as we all know has a lot to do with the ancient art of smoke and mirrors, but it also, just occasionally, has to do with not just talking the talk, sometimes you have to walk the walk too. Fundamentally it's all about leadership and it's what Brown doesn't get about it. He thinks the more he talks the talk about “fairness” and “rising to challenges” it will all magically come right on the night. Just about everyone in Britain have had their pockets picked by Labour with stealth tax after stealth tax making things ever worse, while all Brown can do is blame it on the global crunch. Yes of course there are global issues but our problems are also domestic, labour-made, issues. It's been an accident waiting to happen and Brown has overseen this mess - much of which is his own making.

A couple of days later I suggested that.
Gordon Brown will become a similar object of derision for Conservatives and those who vote labour out at the next election. He will become the man whose legacy will keep Labour out of power for years to come. No matter what happens he’ll be the Brown eyed loathsome man.

Over the past week or so the McBride scandal and now the addition of Balls, Whelen and co. has dragged Brown to a new low. In the Sunday Telegraph there is an article by Tom Bower. It is THE best article I've read anywhere on the calamity that is Labour and the unmitigated disaster that is Gordon Brown – especially since becoming PM. The simple fact is that Brown does not have the ability to lead. He's like a guy I once worked with that was recruited from academia. His response to everything was, let's write a paper. These papers looked impressive, were big and were full of graphs and diagrams. However, very little of what he proposed made any sense – fine in the confines of the classroom, no good in the real world of cut and thrust business. Brown and his boys (because that is largely the problem, they have little experience) can go on and on talking the talk – they just can't walk the walk.


What's to happen? Well, we're going to have a completely discredited government under a leader who cannot lead, doesn't know how to lead at a time when we need leadership and a strong government more than we've ever needed one. The blogosphere (not keen on the term, but it'll do) did well under Guido's full frontal attack last week. However, the MSM, and especially the newspapers have been stung into action. They are having difficulties coping with declining sales and Ad revenue; they don't need their credentials as journalists and commentators called into question. We will have a run of stories on the government from papers anxious to show their Lobby correspondents are not tame hacks doing Labour's bidding.

Watch their space....it's going to get bloody.