Another trip, another embarrassment for Brown

Austin Barry

Michelle Bachelot, a polyglot with colourful antecedents, must have been bored to tears by our monomaniacal, hyper-kinetic PM. The world has probably concluded, after Brown, Darling and Galloway, that the last sympathetic Scotsman was Greyfriars Bobby.

Travis Bickle

Do these people know Jonah is coming in advance or does he just turn up on the doorstep and they then run to replace the lid on the teapot?

plmac

How I would love to be a fly on the wall of the Brown plane back home - he must be fuming.

Bearing in mind the Queen's got knived today for having the cheek to meet Mervyn King, who will feel his wrath next?

Cottage Pie

Someone should make a film of Mr Brown's foreign adventures - Why not call it Mr Bean's Holiday 2. He's already getting lots of laughs.

Simon Stephenson

Great final sentence, not harmed much by the missing of an "n" at the end of Latin America!

Gawain

You could hardly make it up. Its a bit like watching a new reality TV programme, "Fantasy PM". This week Gordon is doing diplomacy. Perhaps we'll all wake up on the morning after the next election to hear Jonathan Woss announcing that its all been an hilarious experiment and Gordon Brown is actually Jock Mackintosh an anthropology lecturer from Kirkaldy.

hadrian

Broon's paranoia must now be at full tilt after all the humiliations..not least the Queen's temerity in consulting Merv the Nerve in his absence.
Why does he bother? Even his own back benchers despair of him.
As for Gretfriar's Bobby- if you need a good, alternative Scot, can I suggst our own resident Fraser the Faschious Fazer Nelson?

oldrightie

How I would love to be a fly on the wall of the Brown plane back home - he must be fuming.

May I respectfuly point to him flying out of Strasbourg?

J H Holloway

Even Radio 4 ran with the story that her 'saving in the good times' speech was a direct of what Cameron had been saying all along.

Normally, that line would be much too nuanced and but too anti-Labour for the BBC, but I suspect they've been 'nudged' towards Hannan's 'run out of money' theme by the reaction to his speech.

Bruce Robertson

One would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh...

john miller

I have seen a trend on this world tour that reinforces my opinion that Brown will not lead the Labour Party into the next election.

Earlier in the week he said that Mervyn King and he were in accord on economic policy. That was patently and demonstrably untrue.

In Chile, he said that the IMF have stated that Britain is best placed to waether the economic downturn. This is just a blatant lie.

Given that politicians are at a pretty low ebb at the moment, Brown can hardly do any worse in the polls than he is now. Many sections of society would vote Labour if the candidate were a ferret in a flat hat.

However, in the run up to an election, even the ferret lovers would baulk at electing a pathological liar. And the MSM, although largely ignoring Brown's lies now, would be unable to ignore them in the frenzy of an election campaign.

As a Tory, my worst fear would be that Brown resigns due to ill health only a matter of weeks away from an election. People still don't have a reason to vote Tory, and a fresh face leading Labour would retain the core 30% vote and could swing the undecided back in their favour.

David Ossitt

He is now a walking disaster; an utter disgrace, the man is an embarrassment.

He has so many things going wrong; he is doing so many silly things, that he is now the national joke.

But he will leave all of us a superb legacy; a mortally wounded labour party.

Ken

"economic prudence by a Latin America" ... errr that would be Latin American, and a phobic remark which does you little credit. Britain may once have lorded the seas and bullied its way into the imperial markets of others in Luso-Hispanic America but today thanks to a bunch of Scottish traitors, it is now a powerless 10th-rater and falling fast. More strength to Chile and all those who tell McBust where to get off.
Next you'll be defending a Catholic succession!

Chuck Unsworth

If it were an embarrassment for Brown solely I'd be saying 'bring it on'. But this man is, apparently, a Prime Minister of Great Britain - Her Majesty's First Minister. Why is he allowed to continuously wander the world dragging the reputation of this country further and further into the mire. His continued presence on the world stage is each day further destroying our image abroad. He (and thus this country) is a figure of ridicule, a joke. Why has it come to this?

Perhaps one might be prepared to forgive his gross incompetence, but I can never forgive his constant and despicable grandstanding. He's a charlatan of the first order.

Paul B

He (Brown) is just an embarrassment full stop. A charmless, petty individual, sooner the country is rid of him and he is reduced to a brief but troubled footnote in our collective history the better.How many days to go?

David Ossitt

john miller

a ferret in a flat hat.

However, in the run up to an election, even the ferret lovers would baulk at electing a pathological liar.

John; they are called caps, as in flat cap definitely not hats.

Ferrets; what would make you think that lovers of the domesticated European polecat may be the natural supporters of labour?

Is it possible that you might be guilty of being shall we say animal-ist?

Paul B.

How many days to go?

Paul 462days and counting!

Grunston

"But he will leave all of us a superb legacy; a mortally wounded labour party."

This is what Labour Prime Ministers are for - to persuade the electorate not to vote Labour for a couple of decades.

Travis Bickle

Will he be back in time to lead the support for Earth Day, and lecture the rest of us about the need not to take unnecessary journeys and airplane trips?

Tiberius

This week's magazine has revealed to me for the first time the collaborations currently in progress between the Great Leader and our Editor.

I think Matt should be recognized for his heroic self-sacrifice in the interests of journalism and balanced reporting, for spending time in the presence of such a loathesome personality. And although our GL may possess some ideas which would appear to add to the argument on what constitutes assimilation into British society, his overall psychology prevents many of us from being able to accept that anything he ever says is worth so much as a bean.

Rex Burr

I have long felt it not impossible that Brown will be replaced before the next election. His troops won’t want to give up their expense rights lightly.
But who is big enough to fill the hole that Brown has dug?
I agree with john miller that we still don’t have a positive reason to vote Tory.
They claim to represent the whole country while banging on obsessively about inheritance tax, which reinforces the view that they are the defenders of privilege and further alienates the mass vote that they need.

Ian C

A Labour PM taking a lesson in Keynesian economics from a Latin American. Who'd have thought it?

On the other hand, what else will Labour Gov'ts be remembered for (after their passing from being recognised from being an electable party), if not for their aptitude for bankrupting the country whenever the electorate have been stupid enough to allow them to get their hands on the levers of power?

Paul B

David O -462 days too long!

TGF UKIP

Tiberius, as one of Dave's principal media co-conspirators doesn't your mate d'Ancona have a track record of promoting dodgy characters and their causes?

TomTom

How much of her country's copper mining sector is now owned by Chinalco ?

mac

An embarrassing South American tour? No problem, the Foreign Secretary can go out and repair the damage.

Oh, hang on . . .

Verity

Rex Burr - What all this focus on inheritance tax - and the assumption that the average voter gives a crap - tells me is, this party under Cameron is completely out of touch with middle England. Completely disconnected. That Cameron has only brought himself to make a rather weak mention of Hannan's three-minute tour de force only three days after the event that set the Anglosphere on fire, and after it received 1.4m hits, tells us that he is as weak and jealous as Gordon Brown, and as disconnected in his own way.

He generates no enthusiasm among the average Tory voters.

I am still hoping the Tories will lose the next election and that that will prompt them to choose a new Leader. The Labour Party will not be able to stagger on between the shafts of a new Parliament for more than a few months, and the Tories under a new Leader can call for a vote of No Confidence, which they would win.

Dave the tory

David Ossitt, you've obviously never been to the Black Country. There, a cap of that description is known as a "flat'at". On thrad, the only fear I have is that gordo will resign and that somehow, Labour will manage a "John Major 1992" scenario.

Julia

Brown will, eventually... go.Then what? IF the conservatives get a foot into No 10, will life really be much different? I bet they won't dare to make fox hunting legal, bring back our long lost butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers and post offices. Life as I knew it has well and truly gone and I doubt there's any political party with the courage to try and put it right- too many connections with the supermarket magnates.

Truly Grumpy, not that old, woman.

john miller

How on earth can there be another tory who has heard of the expression "flat 'at"?

Could it be there is someone in Glasgow who has heard of a split derivative?

It would be amazing because I just made that up.

I hope...

David Ossitt

Rex Burr: - writes

"They claim to represent the whole country while banging on obsessively about inheritance tax, which reinforces the view that they are the defenders of privilege and further alienates the mass vote that they need"

Rex please let me explain in very simple terms why your thoughts on inheritance tax are so wrong.

A married couple or a couple in a cival partnership can leave to each other any amount without having to pay any tax.

But on the death of the second partner inheritance tax has to be paid at 40% over the zero band currently £312,000.

Even with the downturn in the property market, this figure puts many working class people and middle income people well within this tax band, remember it is the value of the entire estate.

Now this is where it gets nasty,
the taxman wants his bit first before the kids or whoever so you have to pay him, how,do you borrow and then sell assets quickly to pay off the loan.

It could mean you have to sell in a falling market like now, so not only is there 40% tax on a proportion of the estate but you lose twice by having to sell at the wrong time.

It is not a rich mans tax.

Rhoda Klapp

In fact Gordon has taken me out of the inheritance tax bracket. But not in a good way.

Tiberius

TGF UKIP: I know you're not a subscriber as such, but no doubt you are purring at Wheeler's latest fit of pique.

Tankus

"But suffice to say that for a British PM to be lectured in economic prudence by a Latin America is a new low in the sorry limbo dance which is the Brown premiership"

Actually, I think you are wrong Fraser ... it takes a twisted sort of genius to make this a reality ....

Do we really know what Gordons end game is ? ..does his physciatrist..?

Does he ? I mean all his personalities ?

I think he has something "special" in mind for all of us.

This is just the warm up

hadrian

Verity-

Whilst my anti-Socialist, anti-Statist instincts tell me we could far better than Cameron, I have to say he's still vastly preferrable to the present very dangerous Labour bunch. Their blatant socialism may have been excised by TB ( Tony, that is, not the diseas..though come to think of it..) Anyway, the real danger they pose is not just economic madness but cultural suicide in PC lunacy that has been relentless eroding our British constitutional liberties over the last decade The latest ( utterly cynical?)piece is the entirely irrelevant assault on the Act of Settlement, and male primogeniture as if the Monarchy were some sort of radical egalitarian institution and not innately but benignly discriminatory.)The Tories are far less likely to get embroiled in such tosh.

Rex Burr

David Ossitt
The Kids didn’t earn the proceeds of the estate so their paying tax out of it is not unreasonable. It is a windfall.
In most cases the previous owner of the estate didn’t earn the value either as most of it is probably due to unrealistic asset price inflation.
In the vast majority of the country £312,000 is not the estate of an ordinary person. The average wage is less that £25,000 and the median wage is less that that.
The tax rules could be modified to accept payment after a reasonable period of time to allow for efficient liquidation, but the Tories would really like to scrap it altogether to benefit the wealthy, the very ones who don’t need benefits.

Dave the tory

John Millar, I have worked in the Black Country for many years which is where I heard the expression.(In my hospital, one patient wore his at all times. His eventual designated operation was listed as "....and removal of flat'at.")

I am of proud Yorkshire heritage (nowhere near Glasgow)and have been a tory all my life. Incidently, what is a split derivative?