"The trouble with the Brown administration is that increasingly its thuggish face is the only face on show."

That is the key line from Nick Cohen's piece in today's Guardian Comment is Free. Here's another extract :

"As the economic crisis has deepened, he has returned to his old sectarianism. Downing Street is now a bunker filled with his gang of trusties: men with few discernible qualities beyond a cultish devotion to their leader.

They think they can carry on as they did in the days when they went for Alan Milburn, and do not understand how the world has changed. One of the ugliest aspects of politics is the sycophancy which surrounds successful leaders. When his colleagues thought Brown had a strong grip on the economy, many admired his strong-arm tactics. The one complemented the other and showed that Brown was a leader in control. His failure has shifted the ground rules. Now the economy is falling apart his colleagues are likely to be far less indulgent."

Nice use of the "bunker" analogy, the Downfall videos are obviously spreading.

Gordon Brown is finished as PM; he may not realise it himself yet, some of those around him may realise it but be too scared to tell him the truth, but he is finished.

One of the few joys that will be left to us poor saps, who will be paying for Gordon Brown's horrendous mismanagement of the UK economy, will be watching his slow and humiliating fall from power.