Poor Gordon

Another nice article in the Telegraph today is this one by Matthew d'Ancona. It is entitled "The Government is spinning in circles" and includes these lines "The best line ever deployed against Tony Blair was coined by Iain Duncan Smith: "You can't believe a word he says." It was also, as Robert Peston revealed in his book about Gordon Brown, deployed by Mr Blair's own chancellor. "There's nothing that you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe," Gordon told Tony.

So it was no surprise that Mr Brown made so much of plain dealing at his leadership campaign launch in May. He had, he said, "never believed presentation should be a substitute for policy". His government would be "more open and accountable". He would "listen and learn".

No more evasions, no more dodgy dossiers, no more burying bad news as the bodies were being carried from Ground Zero. Armed with his "moral compass", Gordon would speak honestly and say what he meant, to a public disgusted by spin. The new Prime Minister would, in the words of the Scottish play, renounce "the equivocation of the fiend/ That lies like truth".

Seven months later, the spirit of that launch event seems a distant memory. In the past week, the Brown Government has surpassed itself as a factory of spin, doublethink and mixed messages. If the PM and his entourage think they are being cunning, they are in for a rude awakening. Treated with this contempt, the electorate will just turn its back, and get on with its Christmas shopping."

Do read the rest.