Gordon Brown 'lacking confidence' and 'neurotic'

If there's one thing that Gordon Brown must hate right now - other than the grinning spectre of Tony Blair swirling around his bed, laughing like a nightmarish Dickensian omen - it's polls and reports. Actually, that's two things. But you know what we mean.

Every time a new set of stats is released, it must be like a biro in the eye for the weary PM. And we're talking the real peeper here, people - not that glass fella he has rolling around in his left socket. Following a YouGov poll that placed the Tories far, far in the lead of Labour - a truth that may be horribly realised today - now even Labour think-tanks are slating the poor guy. Just check out the new report from the Fabian Society.

Sunder Katwala - author of the report - claims that, if there isn't significant change within the Brown camp, he risks being entirely 'written off' as a prospect for the next general election. To which Westmonster has only one response: 'risks' being written off? Hasn't Katwala been keeping up with the headlines. Christ - even opinion pieces in Angling Weekly and Architecture Today have been predicting he'll be gone by summer. Probably.

Katwala also reckons that the government should 'cancel their subscription to PR Week' - presumably because every issue has an article on how bad they're doing - and that Brown should stop his practice of 'tactical triangulation', otherwise known as infusing Labour values with a Middle-England-friendly Tory sheen.

Not too sure about that last one. We're pretty sure that approach kept Tone in power for a decade, last time we checked ...

Written by C J Davies on 1 May 2008 1:44 AM. Permalink