Whilst Polly lauds her man "Those who know him know Gordon Brown to be a man of sincere beliefs with a profound concern for the poor at home and abroad. There is nothing showy or sham about him...Gordon Brown is certainly the cleverest prime minister in living memory ..."
The readers' comments are less favourable:
"Brown is far more awful than even the most cynical Blairite could have imagined. He's developing into a national embarrassment. There MUST be a way to get rid him."
"So, the number one Blair apologist finally turns on 'Saint Tony'.
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"Blair was considerably madder and badder by the time he left office - what with war, Catholic conversion and shameless plunder from fat directorships".
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Only a fool could not see through that arch dissembler from day one. Short of having 'LIAR' (I thought of putting something stronger there but decided the moderators would just pull it) tattooed across his forehead, he couldn't have made it much more obvious but it takes Polly a long time to see the obvious.
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It has also apparently escaped your attention that Brown was 2nd in rank in the cabinet that approved the mad and bad war and could probably have prevented UK involvement in it by resigning. But as with all New Labour ministers, pursuit of power was more important than truth or moral integrity.
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As for Brown's stewardship of the economy directing money to the poorest, I think you'll find the biggest beneficiaries have been the fat cats and the loan sharks of 'Any UK Bank PLC', living off the misery of indebted students, families with un-affordable mortgages and any other vulnerable member of society they can prey on. As Brown was so keen to take the credit for the smoke and mirrors economy that led to this awful state of affairs, I would think reasoned observers should now hold him responsible for the fallout, rather than portray him has some kind of tragic hero.
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As I told you (Ms Toynbee) once before, Brown is a 'mutterer in dark corners', now that he has the glare of publicity upon him, he is found wanting, this comes as no surprise to me and shouldn't to you, I warned you about it.
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So instead of becoming an apologist for Gordon, wake up and smell the ordure. Politicians are a curse we endure - this lot have a particularly bad record on integrity, civil liberties, starting wars they can't win and now, it would appear, fiscal prudence.
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The secret to dealing with politicians is to vote them out every 4 years, or sooner if possible - that way you stop them doing anything. It's what politicians do, not what they don't do, that makes our lives a misery."
"Let's not forget that people like Polly and Jackie Ashley never missed an opportunity to puff up Brown when Blair was still PM -- I always got the impression that Jackie fancied herself as the chronicler of the Brown court. Well, here he is in all his glory. Ten years of destabilising the Blair government and preventing it from taking decisive action in public-sector reform when the Tories were nowhere. Ten years of incessant sniper-fire and unattributed quotes to gossip-mongering journos. And this is it! An incompetent government led by a PM whose credibility went down the pan with the election-that-never-was."
"Polly, this was ever on the cards. Brown's Olympic fudge exactly mirrors his pathetic signing-the-EU-treaty fudge. It's typical of the man. This is who he is: weak, dithering, cowardly.
As for his "that 12% lead he earned in the early months" - he NEVER earned it. It was the result of a) his simply not being Blair and b) a "let's give him a chance" attitude. Unfortunately this vain buffoon interpreted it as a measure of his personal popularity. How very, very wrong of him."
"...Sorry, Polly: no nosepegs this time. We voted Blair, thinking we'd get Brown (remember the Tories, pulling an advertising campaign on that theme because it was helping Labour)? Turns out Brown's an empty space where the leader should be, a coward with no ability to sell any ideas that he might have. First Ken, then Gordon, then a few hundred Labour MPs: it's going to be a good few years.
The Tory MPs were brave enough to depose Thatcher to keep their party in power. Labour MPs --- fat with votes from the client state who they've now shafted with 20% tax, mortgage problems and ever-reducing chances of their children going to University --- don't have the brains or the bottle to do the same, and will cheer Gordon to the echo in the coming ten years of futile, pointless opposition. It'll be fun to watch, though."
"Perversely, as a Labour supporter, I find myself looking forward to the Tories winning. We *do* need a change of Government, and it is time for Labour to spend a period out of office. A term or two of humility and deciding what they're really for will do them good.
Brown deserves no sympathy. All his plotting, empire building and scheming crippled the Government - and for what? Please stop calling him an intellectual; he reads books - so what? Look at what he's actually done. His hair-brained tax credits system has created an expensive bureaucracy and entrenched a dependency culture that will take a generation to shift. His move on CGT benefits short term speculators but punishes entrepeneurs and those who build their businesses up over a life time. And his moves on inheritance tax and the 10% band were blatant (and futile) attempts to woo the middle classes..."
"...Permit me to be utterly unimpressed if this is the best defence you can offer of the warmongering party that has run things with such rank hypocrisy and incompetence for over a decade.
I wonder for how much longer these pages will still contain the faint echo of a voice saying "But the Tories would be even worse ..."? "
"...Brown is a control freak who thinks that Orwell's 1984 is a blue print for how to run a country and suppress the peoples views.
Other than that he's a tosser who couldn't run a piss up in a brewery."
...and on and on and on they go, take a read - maybe even contribute a comment or two.
The comments really don't make pleasant reading for Gordon. However I wonder if he's at all interested in what the Guardian readership have to say, or maybe he's busy planning his next PR triumph - he appeared on American Idol earlier this week, maybe he's seeing if he could possibly join Graham Norton Looking for a Nancy next.
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