Matthew Parris on Gordon Brown

From today's Times comes this cogent analysis of Gordon Brown.

"As the year nears its close with a new Prime Minister test-driven, run-in and, from the look of him, near done-in, your diarist wrestles with a professional problem. I think Gordon Brown is mad.

But the trouble is, I said Tony Blair was mad, too. I said it for nearly ten years. Readers will surely begin to worry that it is I who am mad — or, worse, that I'm just a former Tory MP who thinks all Labour leaders are insane.

But with Mr Brown it shouts at you, doesn't it? The constant, mindless, repetition of comfort-blanket verbal formulae. The anger, the obstinacy — a man by turns bullying yet paralysed by indecision.

And those awful stories: fits of yelling at people, refusing to look at people, unpardonable rudeness to staff, fidgeting, nail-biting, afraid of letting go of anything, terrified of committing yet clinging with blind rigidity to commitments he does make. Then there's the (surely) telltale mistrust of all but a small circle of devotees...

I could go on. But I promise not to. Look, in return for easing up on this in 2008, can I just say one thing now about this madness stuff? With Tony Blair it was a metaphor. With Gordon Brown it's a diagnosis."


I'd like to hear from anyone who wants to take issue with Matthew Parris's remarks...