Gordon’s bid to retain office is undignified
Gordon Brown may well be within his constitutional rights to try to hold on to office (holding on to power is another matter) but it is a very undignified sight. I can remember the similar situation in 1974 when Ted Heath clung on desperately trying to do a deal with Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberals. I thought that was pretty tacky, but at least his defeat led to regime change under Margaret Thatcher.
With Gordon Brown, we have someone who has never been elected Prime Minister or even leader of his party. His coronation as party leader was more like a palace coup. Typically, his whole General Election campaign was based on trying to scare voters into backing Labour. “Vote for us or you’ll regret it,” was the message – (and it must have worked to a degree, otherwise the Labour defeat would have been a total massacre) but it was hardly a vision statement.
Others will dissect the different party campaigns, identifying their mistakes in mortifying detail. But I’m inclined to agree with the old adage that electorates get the governments they deserve. In our case, the electorate (that’s us, folks) made it clear that we did not want to be told the truth about the harsh medicine that we are going to have to swallow to restore the economy to good health. The Tories started to tell us and their poll ratings went south, so they stopped. Now we are about the find out and, no doubt, the Government will be accused of not telling the truth during the election. But remember, when that happens, whose fault it is.
On a more personal note, I was delighted to see that my old friend George Eustice has won Camborne and Redruth from the Lib-Dems. I developed a huge respect for him when we worked together on the successful No campaign against the euro. He then went to work for the Conservatives and, later, recruited me to help during the 2005 General Election. I’m sure we’ll see and hear more of George now that he’s an MP.
