Back in 2007 the Shadow Leader of the Commons, one Theresa May, wrote a cutting assessment of Gordon Brown’s first six months as PM for ConHome. Ten years on, the ironies are quite something…
Meaningless soundbites: “Brown is the master of the meaningless soundbite, an initiative a day… Well, if as Chancellor he was the master of the meaningless soundbite, as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has surpassed himself.” Not so strong and stable eh…
Control freak: “It’s a controlling thing – [Brown] thinks he has to control everything… Charles Clarke might have said this in public, but I’m sure David Miliband and Lord West are saying just the same thing in private. Can you think of any other foreign secretary who has had his speech torn up and re-written by Downing Street? Can you think of a minister who has had such an obvious dressing down as when Lord West said that the case for extending 28 days had not yet been made?” Ministers serving under May’s own control freak regime will find this particularly hilarious…
Psychological flaws: “You know Gordon, he feels so vulnerable and insecure. He has these psychological flaws… When Gordon Brown let the speculation about an early general election get out of hand, only to back down when he saw the opinion polls, there must have been much mirth amongst the Blairites. The arrogance, the dithering, followed by the pathetic climbdown was just the sort of behaviour they had predicted.” Because Theresa would never make an arrogant decision about an election based on opinion polls…
Macavity quality: “The Chancellor has a Macavity quality. He is not there when there is dirty work to be done… Macavity the Cat has been at it again this week. Knowing that the public hate the renamed European Constitution, and knowing that he has broken his manifesto promise to hold a referendum, Gordon Brown really didn’t want to be photographed signing the treaty with the other European heads of government. So, he agreed to go to the Liaison Committee for his evidence session, knowing it clashed, and deliberately double-booking himself.” Not like May to go missing at important moments…
Team player? “The idea that he’s a team player is utterly ludicrous’ (former Permanent Secretary)… in his regular press conference, the Prime Minister studiously refused to back Harriet Harman – deliberately using her as a human shield.” Another one that will have Cabinet ministers laughing. Penny for Philip Hammond’s thoughts on the press conference reference…
Absolute disaster: “It would be an absolute f*cking disaster if Gordon Brown was Prime Minister’ (government minister, reported to be John Hutton)… Well I probably wouldn’t use the same language as John Hutton, but with the first run on a British bank for 140 years, the HMRC lost data fiasco, and his own Party facing a criminal investigation, it’s pretty hard to disagree with the sentiment.” Ahem.
Bring back Blair: “Looking at the opinion polls, I don’t think another Labour leader is what the general public want – but it seems clear that they can’t stand that Gordon Brown.” Now it is Tory MPs who are privately joking “bring back Dave”…
Funny how things work out…
