For a moment after Glenrothes it seemed Gordon’s personal reverse midas touch had been lifted, he even wished Lewis Hamilton good luck and he still managed to win the F1 Grand Prix. However the new year has shown the curse to be as strong as ever.

The signs are the curse is back, big time, here are two examples. At a news conference last month with Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Brown spoke before the opening in London of a two-day Palestine trade and investment forum, saying there were “considerable opportunities” for economic partnership between Palestinians and the UK, “The UK enjoys a close relationship with the Palestinian people and I hope today’s conference will cement this. I hope in the coming days we can move further and faster towards the peace settlement that everyone wants to see happen,” he said. Whoops.

This Sunday the Observer reported “Brown is studying a scheme pioneered by Nissan to avoid redundancies in manufacturing, which would see ailing firms given government funding to move staff on to part-time working and use the remaining time for training.” Last year Jonah Brown met Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn to discuss job creation.

Inevitably yesterday “Car manufacturer Nissan has announced it is to axe about a quarter of the workforce at its Sunderland plant. The company, which sent workers at the site home early before Christmas to cope with the economic downturn, said it will cut 1,200 jobs.” The curse of the One Eyed Son of the Manse is back. Email Guido any more examples.

UPDATE : A bean-counting Brummie co-conspirator emails to tell of the consequences of a visit from Jonah and Yvette Cooper.

The Dear Leader visited our Birmingham offices in October to discuss the Credit Crunch. Two floors in the same building were destroyed by arsonists yesterday morning. So instead of rebuilding confidence in the financial system, we’re rebuilding our office. Thanks Gordon.

Jonah opened the Lehmans HQ in London and look what happened to them. KPMG got off lucky.