What the papers say
A number of very powerful newspaper articles over the past few days making the case that this country needs change and pointing to the collapse in respect and authority of the present government.
Geoffrey Wheatcroft in the "Independent"
"The farcical collapse of our government can be contemplated with detached amusement, but the personal disintegration of Gordon Brown is awful to behold."
"... Brown is now more enfeebled than any prime minister within living memory, or maybe in our history. Although John Major was said to be 'in office but not in power', he seems in hindsight a towering figure compared with Brown, whose government is disintegrating around him, and who to a unique degree totally lacks authority."
You can read the full article here.
But even more damning is Allan Massie's assessment of Gordon Brown in The Telegraph as "The wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time."
He starts by applying to Gordon Brown the classic descripton of Galba by Tacitus: "capax imperii nisi imperasset" e.g. "Everyone would have thought that he would make an excellent emperor had he never had the job."
He goes on to say that in recent months the Prime Minister has moved through being an object of hatred for many through contempt into pity.
Paradoxically, when voters feel pity for a political party or leader they may be more polite to the representatives of that party than when they feel anger, yet the loss of political authority which this represents is even more serious.
I can recall that during the last stages of the last Conservative government, the hardest thing to take wasn't when I met people who were angry. It was when I met people who expressed pity.
Time has moved on, and the Conservative party has learned from the mistakes we made in the 1990s. It is time for the Labour party to learn from the mistakes they made in this decade. And the best way for them to learn is a long spell of opposition, starting as soon as possible.
Geoffrey Wheatcroft in the "Independent"
"The farcical collapse of our government can be contemplated with detached amusement, but the personal disintegration of Gordon Brown is awful to behold."
"... Brown is now more enfeebled than any prime minister within living memory, or maybe in our history. Although John Major was said to be 'in office but not in power', he seems in hindsight a towering figure compared with Brown, whose government is disintegrating around him, and who to a unique degree totally lacks authority."
You can read the full article here.
But even more damning is Allan Massie's assessment of Gordon Brown in The Telegraph as "The wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time."
He starts by applying to Gordon Brown the classic descripton of Galba by Tacitus: "capax imperii nisi imperasset" e.g. "Everyone would have thought that he would make an excellent emperor had he never had the job."
He goes on to say that in recent months the Prime Minister has moved through being an object of hatred for many through contempt into pity.
Paradoxically, when voters feel pity for a political party or leader they may be more polite to the representatives of that party than when they feel anger, yet the loss of political authority which this represents is even more serious.
I can recall that during the last stages of the last Conservative government, the hardest thing to take wasn't when I met people who were angry. It was when I met people who expressed pity.
Time has moved on, and the Conservative party has learned from the mistakes we made in the 1990s. It is time for the Labour party to learn from the mistakes they made in this decade. And the best way for them to learn is a long spell of opposition, starting as soon as possible.
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