Skipper

Another cracking article by Andrew Rawnsley today, the final sentence of which leads this post. He reprises the saga of the Jacqui Janes letter, the resultant phone conversation with Brown and the evident reality of a Sun determination to belittle Brown and besmirch his name and reputation.

That The Sun overdid it is now palpable with even his enemies like Iain Dale- a Conservative (blogger) but a humane one- Mathew Parris- ditto- and the rightwing Spectator all agreeing Gordon has been pilloried unfairly as a busy man of poor eyesight. A more deserving target would have been his private office which allowed the letter to go out unchecked. Number 10 apparently is pleased the pendulum of sympathy has swung in Brown's direction by the end of the week.

Rawnsley points out us however that Brown was never going to be a leader we'd love and so had aimed to win our respect:

You don't achieve that from having people feel sorry for you. Voters want a leader who feels their pain, not one who asks them to experience his. Countries do not want to be led by people they pity.

Most of us felt sorry for John Major- a 'decent' man- as his party imploded around his ears, but we didn't vote for him 'Leaders who attract our pity simultaneously attract our disdain.'

Finally, a word on the 'plot'. It seems MPs are plotting to elected an anti-Brown candidate as chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party in place of Brown loyalist Tony Lloyd. If either Barry Sheerman or the impressive young Parmjit Dhanda, are elected, then according to Observer sources, 'the prime minister would have little option but to stand down'. Well, I've heard so much about plots and each time it's been 'Brown's last warning'; I really don't think there is either time enough to do the deed or anything like the necessary bottle in the PLP to do it.