A Fairer Britain or The Forces of Hell?

Good! So that's alright then. We now all know that Mr Brown is not a bully. He's just someone who cares and is determined to build a fairer Britain.

In the meantime Mr Darling, arguably the next most important man in government to the PM, has confirmed in an interview with Sky News that two of the Prime Minister's key aides briefed long and hard against the Chancellor when he predicted, back in 2008 that Britain's economy was in for a very rough time. According to Mr Darling, "the forces of hell were unleashed." Now who could have unleashed the forces? The 'forces of hell', clearly not a very nice man. But does this constitute bullying. No it probably does not but what then followed exposes someone who is clearly hell-bent on getting his own way.

During the summer Mr Brown wanted to replace Mr Darling with Ed 'Blinker' Balls, but Mr Darling got his own back by refusing to be replaced, insisting he would resign to the back benches rather than accept another job in government. This would have made the PM's job close to untenable. Result Mr Darling is still in No.11, while Mr Brown remains in No.10.

Now all this can do little for the smooth working of government in these most testing of times. Mr Brown is clearly someone who likes to get his own way. For years he wanted the top job, over which he agreed a deal with Tony Blair. Now is it, was it, right that Tony Blair, who said he was going to serve a full term, stepped down to allow a man into the top job who is most obviously not cut out for such a role?

As I've often said on this blog, Mr Brown is not a leader, he is not the stuff from which leaders are made. All that has gone on since he has come to power shows a man who is Machiavellian, a man who has not the skills to be PM and most worryingly a man who is by inclination introverted rather than an extrovert. Leadership in a parliamentary democracy, one that is founded on the longstanding principals of cabinet rule does not sit well with Mr Brown (nor did it with his predecessor but he was a lot cleverer, as were those he gathered around him.) Gordon Brown is a controller, not a leader.

Vast column inches are given over to the opinion polls, the tea leaves and crystal ball gazing by pollsters trying to determine who is ahead, and by how much, and what it could all mean for our future government. Clearly Mr Cameron has not grabbed the electoral high ground; it might all change when we have the TV debates, but then again it may not. So could Gordon Brown still be PM after the election? Yes he could, and then the country will be in real trouble. Watch then the infighting and the jockeying before the knives come out. We will be faced with a Labour party who thinks it is omnipotent, one that will contain even less experience than the current cabinet. Who will push the knife into Mr Brown should he win in a couple of months?

Gordon Brown may want to be careful what he wishes for. . .

Gordon Brown - Back Door Man

When Gordon Brown got the big job this time last year he talked a good game. "In the weeks and months ahead, my task is to show I have the new ideas, the vision and the experience to earn the trust of the British people." This from a man who "accepts that mistakes have been made." Well I fed up with hearing about “the mistakes that we made” and we how “we will improve” from Labour cabinet ministers.

Yesterday Tessa Jowell was interviewed on the BBC and said that three things characterised our Prime Minister. Courage, Conviction and Vision. Well I know he wrote a book about courage, or at least had his name on the front of a book called 'Courage', but he continues to demonstrate a lack of it in his role as the country’s leader. Tessa Jowell and the others better start learning a lesson fast, mantras don’t actually make anything happen. Sound bites are just that, and fix nothing, and without a well oiled machine around him Brown looks increasingly beleaguered.

Crucially Brown shows none of the characteristics that mark out a real leader from someone who just craves the position. For me he has never shown those qualities that great leaders have; much as I was no fan of the Head Boy, he was so superior to Brown that it is almost frightening.

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.

Which brings me on to David Cameron. He clearly has things to learn but he has the mark of a leader about him. He definitely instils a greater sense of loyalty than Brown from those around him and that’s what is going to do for Brown. Over the coming months the Labour MPs who can see their ride on the gravy train coming to an abrupt end will start to get increasingly twitchy. Brown has not the ability to lead from the front. He is fundamentally ‘a back door man’ who will wheel and deal and connive and rant and rave….but he’ll never lead because he’s incapable. Stepping out the front door, inspiring people, and showing a sense of moral courage are what's needed, not his shifty, rather pasty looking politics.

Within a matter of days and weeks we can expect a speech that brings in family values and protecting the country for our children – I know about what that means because I have two little boys - can't you just hear him saying it? Whereas previously the one thing that people 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. No matter what the fawning young nu-Lab clones do they will never be able to get this show back on the road. Gordon Brown will never a leader be.

David Cameron Patronizing Towards Scotland

There's an interview in today's Daily Telegraph with David Cameron. In it he says, "As the first Tory leader to have done a walkabout in Sauchiehall Street without being headbutted, I think it's a great badge of honour." I think this is the second time he's cracked this gag and it's bloody stupid. Has he any idea how out of touch it makes him sound? How patronizing, despite his carping on about how in touch with Scotland he is. Hearing things like this makes me believe that old Etonians really do live in some kind of rarefied, aspic-clad, atmosphere. Despite his protestations of 'ordinaryness' he should perhaps get a few people around him who understand a little bit more about real life, ask their advice and then take heed.

Oh and by the by, no Tory leader has ever been headbutted in Sauchiehall Street - making him an even bigger twirp (an under used word for my money!)