Your Sunday evening Fisk

Michael Booth

The man is a disgrace. We didn't vote for him, we don't want him or his policies, yet still he clings on and deludes himself that he is the Saviour of the Nation. This is all about Brown the Great Clingon (or the Great Clanger. The French President should have know better who to send the invitation to in the first place.

jaydeeaitch

Everything that man says or does makes me hate him more. I am now on 1000% hatred and rising.

TrevorsDen

"Utterly shameless." - Well did Marr point that out? Have you written to him or spoken to him or anyone else to point out Brown was lying?

If you do not defend yourself as well as the Tory party from these attacks then you are worse than useless and you can Fisk yourself until you have gone blind, but its still a waste of time.

mac

Gordon Brown, the principled democrat.
First order tw*t, actually.

The Normandy vets should pointedly cut him dead.

TJ

right on the button, Fraser. It was truly sick-making stuff. And Andrew Marr - "Andy" as GB kept calling him - was utterly hopeless.

Gawain

Today has been a beautiful day as you say. I was up in town and the atmosphere was relaxed and peaceful. Lots of people out shopping, sightseeing or just strolling around enjoying the sunlight. The sort of day when its a delight to be in London. Somehow I suspect very few people watched the strange creature who inhabits No. 10 blurting out his inanities. It just doesn't seem very important any more.

strapworld

Mr Nelson, on point 6.

I hope David Cameron strings the monster up by his toe nails.He should remind Brown who the head of state IS and why it is vitally important that on such a solemn occasion THE QUEEN or Prince Charles or Prince William attend.

Brown, as you say, wants to strut the world stage and pose with 'my friend' Obama.

Sick, the man is bloody sick. I bet he doesn't know anything about D Day.

AJC

Thanks for the D-Day link. Clearly machine translation still has some way to go after
some 50 years!

AJC

Nick Kaplan

He also kept going on about how it was only because of his freedom of information law that the expenses scandal was revealed.

I am right in thinking that the Telegraph got this story because of a leak which was nothing to do with an FOI request??

David

"Oh God, what have I done?"

Exactly what you wanted? I mean, you can't be that stupid. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has posted here about what would happen if the words "cuts" were uttered by anyone linked to the Tories, and that's not mentioning Daniel Finkelstein.

Jock

On the 10% cuts point Fraser, you have played into Brown's hands. Predictable on his part, very careless on your part.

As to the general thrust of his message, blatant and absolutely shameless.

Here we have a leading light in the government which has done more than any in history to by-pass the Cabinet, emasculate Parliament, politicise those parts of the Civil Service which he hasn't sidelined and perpetuate the expenses as a proxy for salary regime - posing as the fresh start, clean up Parliament, power to the people paragon.

You couldn't make it up.

As for the Presbyterian conscience,those who have it live it, those who lack it cite it. In the church of Saint Gordon, Damian McBride is a disciple. Enough said.

Andy Leeds

On Point 6, the Moron said 'you have to ask the Palace why the Queen wasn't going this week'. Like hell will we ask the Palace. It was his job to secure an invitation, but it speaks volumes that Sarkozy and Obama didn't think they ought to, as a matter of courtesy, to invite HM. We should remember this insult when next the French, or the Americans for that matter, want our help.

Andy Leeds

On Point 6, the Moron said 'you have to ask the Palace why the Queen wasn't going this week'. Like hell will we ask the Palace. It was his job to secure an invitation, but it speaks volumes that Sarkozy and Obama didn't think they ought to, as a matter of courtesy, to invite HM. We should remember this insult when next the French, or the Americans for that matter, want our help.

Verity

Jaydeeaitch - On the hatred metre, I'm running level with you.

Fraser, your point 4, "Parliament can only decide peace and war, Parliament can only decide treaties.”

Is he barking mad? (Rhetorical.)

Is he stating limitations of what Parliament can do? Or did he mean to say, rather than "Parliament can only ...", did he mean to say "Only Parliament can ..."?

That is one helluva misspeak.

Nut job.

Bruce Robertson

I distinctly remember 2004 being marked as the last great D-Day remembrance.

michael lovett

Am I mistaken?.....did he not snswer Andy's election in a year question with a " maybe" or was it a perhaps not!!

Moraymint

Andrew Marr is a joke of a journalist anyway. But then, he works for the BBC doesn't he?

What amazes me is that in Michael Martin's constituency, for example, there is still a majority of citizens who see Gordon Brown and the Labour Party as a 'good thing'.

What in God's name do they smoke?

Craig Strachan

"And what do the Presbyterians think about it?"

We'll refer it to a committee of the General Assembly and get back to you in about three years.

Atholl Highlander

I have to confess that I voted for New Labour three times. That is not a mistake that I will ever repeat and I suppose I should thank Gordon Brown for exposing the horrible reality behind the smile of Tony Blair. Brown has to be the most self-rightous, conceited, detestable toad of a man that has ever held high office in this country. Yuk!

Tiberius

We all know Brown has the shame and the conscience of The Terminator, and it is point 2 that most clearly illustrates the problem the Tories have had, and which Cameron has been fighting tooth and nail to counter.

Although the "10% cuts" line is a filthy lie, many of the public can't help giving it some credence, not least because the likes of Marr don't question it.

Fraser, you are sometimes guilty of the naivete that beset Hague and IDS (kidding)! Clearly your job is to report the truth as you see it, but for those whose job it is to beat the fork-tongued New Labour machine in a GE, openness is often a luxury they cannot afford.

Atholl Highlander

I was just watching this in iPlayer and had to switch it off before the end of the interview – I just couldn't take any more the man.

chris

Marr is useless. Cameron got a caning on Politics Today later from one of the BBCs leftie commentators. Marr looked frightened of Brown.
Brown never answered any questions, and kept saying 'hang on' half way through a question, and then made an irrelevant statement which was prepared, and untrue or deliberately misleading.
This is a continuing shameful exhibition, and how the BBC keep getting away with it is anyone's guess.
I noticed Duncan Smith cleared off to avoid having to sit on the same sofa as Brown. I would have stayed put and held my nose.
We are going to have to put up with the ridiculous sneering Dimble-dunce on Thursday night, as well.
I will be watching Sky, although Bolt-on in nearly as bad.

Dirty Euro:

So the tory leader claimed 350 k mortgages on our bill. Well it is OK for some. How do the tory "moral" majority feel about that? I suppose it is OK for some. Ted Heath would never have done that.
To be honest all the party leaders are as bad as the rest.It annoys me they are all claiming the bastions of honesty on this issue. The PM, had a maid. Clegg claimed to limit and the tory leader got a insane 350 k mortgage for his "second home". Eh why does an mp need a 350 k second home. Why?

brian kelly

You can see what's in Brown's mind - those who have flagrantly flouted the actual rules could well be prosecuted; he realises that cannot be resisted. But the rest - those who have been greedy and creative and have submitted outrageous and ridiculous claims will be 'vetted' or audited by some yet to be defined committee and which will have a large input from him and mps' and will result in virtually nothing. I only hope the general public will be savage at the GE. Brown is utterly worthless and seemed very much ill at ease most of the time with Marr [the malleable interviewer] and told lies - amongst them the obvious lie that all would have come out in July, anyway. One really wonders if he is sane. I watched again the Marr interview and from my interpretation of what he said when told that an election would have to be held in a year he responded - and left hanging in the air [possibly by Marr interupting] - with 'it's possible......'.

Mark S

What in the hell does Stephen Harper and Canada have to do with G Brown and D-Day snub.

Sir Graphus

Where to start. Where to start. I imagine where most entries here have been short.

Alfred Wells

Does anyone else cringe when Gordon Brown starts clumsily counting his achievements with his stubby little digits every two minutes?

Victor, NW Kent

"And my point (which, yes, I should have been clearer about) was that HIS latest Budget proposes 7 percent cuts – the Tories intend to protect health, so that would make their cuts (at least) 10 percent from April 2011 - April 2014".

Yes Fraser - please be clearer - you have confused at least two people, Brown and me. Either you do not understand what you are trying to say or else you have phrased it poorly.

By the way, it is self-evident and crystal clear to most people that cuts will occur whether we like it or not. The only ones who are not in favour of reducing expenditure [not investment] are those who exist perpetually on benefits.

Brown has never been able to distinguish between spending and investing. We can all applaud the building of a new hospital but few will be grateful that it is then run dearly and poorly.

Simon Stephenson

Point 2 - when you're dealing with people like Brown, Balls, Mandelson and Campbell, to name but four, you have to pre-check everything you say or write to ensure that you are not using words that can be used against you by someone without a scintilla of intellectual honesty.

You slipped up in your Telegraph article, I'm afraid. Next time, if you can bear the thought, put yourself in Brown's shoes - no commitment to truth or fairness, devoted entirely to winning verbal jousts, the rules of engagement for which, from his side at least, are "no holds barred".

Get it out of your mind that you can engage in any sort of purposeful debate with people like this.

Point 3 - I don't know what Brown was like before he went up to University, but from the time he became a pain-in-the-neck student activist he has shown little appetite for truth, particularly if it gets in the way of manoeuvering for advantage.

Perhaps his personal code of behaviour is dominated by a subconscious rebellion against the family respect for truth that in his childhood prevented him from getting his own way. Maybe to admit to himself what he really is would be far too shameful, hence the projection of himself as the precise opposite of what he actually is.

Point 6 - Outrageous, absolutely outrageous. But nothing that you wouldn't expect of the man.

Martyn Griffiths

You didn't fisk the bit that made my blood boil the most. About 42 mins in:

" I personally don't accept the case for an unelected House of Lords... I think in the 21st Century people have got to be subject to both an election and accountability"

I could not believe my ears... this from the man who will go to any lengths to avoid an election, who accepts no accountability (eg Smeargate - McBride reported to him).

If he believes that people have to be subject to an election, he should give us the one we want... a general election now.

Amanda

I knew Brown had to be behind the Queen not going to the D-Day ceremony somehow - I hope the press make a song and dance about it !!! Disgusting.

DownTrodden

I swear if I hear any more about Mr. Brown's “Presbyterian conscience” or “I was brought up in a household where integrity and telling the truth and doing everything honestly was what really mattered.”, I shall vomit into a bag and send it special delivery to G.Brown at 10 Downing Street while we still have a Royal Mail.

His hypocrisy is utterly staggering. Who will rid me of the turpitude of this man?

Rob

"I've changed the royal prerogative. Parliament can only decide peace and war, Parliament can only decide treaties."

He's hasn't actually done this. There's cross-party agreement that this should be done, but the Government haven't got round to tabling the resolutions and legislation needed.

I worry that Brown's becoming delusional - thinking things can be so just because he says it. Watch his recent interviews with Nick Robinson and Garry Gibbon - he says he's cleaned up the political system (after saving the world) and when the journalist points out that it's simply not true, he develops this terrifyingly manic stare and - rather like a six year old - simply asserts that he's right and they're wrong. Worrying.

Adam

Brown is a nightmare. Labour's fall to 3rd place isn't all about expenses. It isn't even mainly about expenses.
It is the worst PM ever.

TGF UKIP

A couple of points. Fraser, your super -sophisticated fisking is lost on the overwhelming majority who will be taken in by Brown's repetition of his "Presbyterian background, his sainted father and his "integrity." This is the penalty the Tories pay by not having the balls to use the "L" word as Labour did to them with far less justification prior to 1997.

As it is Gordon, as usual, undid himself with his shiftiness when Marr questioned him on the reported 52 Labour MPs asking No 10 for peerages.

Secondly, the Queen and the "D" Day invite has been the big story ignored by all you posh hacks. It was around in the Express a few days ago. Imagine how Campbell would have played this had the boot been on the other foot pre 97.

Verity

Mark S - Be fair. The Canadians were also in Normandy. The point being made by Brown or some other autist is, as Canada is a Commonwealth country and they were invited, why didn't THEY suggest inviting HM?

Brown is such a squalid individual, but the entire socialist ethos is squalid.

And Obama is no friend of Britain. Before he became a national, and then an international, figure, he was over in Kenya supporting anti-British mini-movements, mostly involving his multitude of "half brothers".

Elle

I'm reaching the point where I no longer want to see this man's face, and I certainly don't want to hear what he says.

He is a liar of the worst sort - one that actually believes his own lies.

Nas neæe ni pakao smest

Well, you have stronger constitutions than me. I can't watch Brown any more. As an old man of 41 I can feel it taking years off my life every time I even hear Broon's voice, let alone watch him, even his brother shouting through a locked door "Get off my stair (the singluar stair was curiously irritating to my English ear, much like Broon's " transpairency")was enough to raise my blood pressure. If I allowed myself to truly reflect on the state of the Nation and the coterie of pygmies we have in Parliament on all sides then emigration would be the only option. I am hoping that when Broon is carried out frothing in a strait jacket that I may be able to gradually re-acquaint myself with politics, maybe one day a week in a supermarket car park. And yes, Andrew Marr seems like an oily little toady to Labour, even now during Der Untergang.

Nicholas

Andy Leeds: "We should remember this insult when next the French, or the Americans for that matter, want our help."

Read Peter Clarke's 'The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire' and all is revealed.

Archie Wedderspoon

Those of us Scots who are not Presbyterians know all about the Presbyterian conscience. I'm afraid Brown has been living up to it.

Ruby Duck

Presbyterian conscience from the man who recommended students save money by taking a carrier bag with a couple of bricks and some empty cans to a party ?

Please tell me there's a special place in hell for those who believe their own lies. I'd rather burn alongside Fred West.

Fergus Pickering

I think, I THINK, that inorder to have a Presbyterian conscience, it is necessary to be a Christian. It also has to be sad that in great Scottish literature, I mean Scott and Stevenson, a Presbyterian and a hypocrite are often the same person. Also in life. I was brought up in Scotland too.

Jenny Canuck

Please, people, get a grip! It could be worse - you could be saddled with Stephen Harper!

RobC

Watched it twice.In my view a balanced presbyterian view of the world according to Brown boils down to arrogance, obfuscation,pork pies and total denial.The only time he got rattled was when the dead sheep(toenails)mentioned Brown's own expenses and peerages Brown definitely got the hump.How on earth was this man allowed anywhere near the corridors of power?

Edward

Didn't see the interview, but I think I've got the gist from the article and comments.

Last time I was in the UK, (2 years ago), the only TV political commentator who seemed capable of holding my attention with meaningful sentences was Tom Bradbury on ITN.
If he hasn't been "got at" or fallen into the Westminster schmooze, perhaps he should be brought in to put searching questions to the likes of Brown, (not letting-up until acceptable answers are forthcoming) instead of the present pathetic toadies and brown-nosers who are disgustingly cosy with those they interview.

If we lack politicians - and we do.
We certainly lack serious political interviewers.

"Opposition?"
Forgetaboutit.

Paul L

Bruce Robertson - they said that in 1994 as well.

Ray

The Presbyterian conscience obviously had no qualms about ramping the national debt up to highest level we have ever witnessed in peacetime, saddling future generations with the burden of paying it all off.

John Knox

Where was his "Presbyterian conscience" when he employed McPoison et al?

Where does character assassination in the Westminster Confession of Faith?

Nicholas

Brown's response to the question about HM The Queen and D-Day was even shabbier than her treatment of her. This odious man is a disgrace to the office he holds and a traitor to the country. A thinly disguised bolshy, Marxist student activisit with an overwheening ego and a nasty stubborn, bullying streak. His desire to bathe in the reflected glory of Obamarama is both repulsive and pathetic.

My hatred for him and his gang exceeds all normal limitations.

Publius

"Oh God, what have I done?"

Quite, Mr Nelson. And as I said before, what did you expect? But you came on all prim and proper and started talking about your noble commitment to truth.

I can understand that it's all a big game to you, but I can promise you it certainly ain't for me.

As for the vile Mr Brown, truth and he go together like a concentration camp guard and moral scruple. The Presbyterian conscience stuff was beyond parody.

Fraser Nelson

Publius et al, I'm afraid that "Oh God" was mock horror - CoffeeHouse is not a Tory website and we have no qualms at all about making points, or criticisms, that Labour use as ammo.

Lee Jakeman

Fraser - being a Scot, aren't you embarrassed by the fact that Andrew Marr, a Scot, is always interviewing other Scots? It was Charles Falconer and Richard Shepherd a couple of weeks ago. Last week it was Helena Kennedy and Iain Duncan Smith. Now it's Gordon Brown. Coincidence? Or partisan prejudice?

Wily Trout

Only saw a bit of the interview - the bit where Broon stumbled over the word 'democracy'. I think every time the word arises, he thinks 'demolish it!' and comes out with 'demolishocracy'.

Jim

Haven't we got to the stage where most people have stopped listening to Labour, regardless of what they say?
Even over at the The Guardian, each time a Labour minister writes an article they get ripped to shreds in the comments section.
So I wouldn't worry much about Brown's interviews, people are just sick to the back teeth of him.

rick

Interesting, while the world spirals downward on the news of a recession, our illustrious worldly leaders(so they think they are)are acting like 4yr olds in a sandbox,pointing fingers and blaming each other over a matter of protocal that the French created in the first place and should apologize for; and Brown and Harper, dunce hats for both, time out in the corner and no supper, they can eat their toe nails.

Craig Strachan

@Lee Jakeman - If there were more important and interesting English people I'm sure Andrew Marr would interview them too.

Mark S

Verity, really your comment to me didn't make sense, I am a Canadian and aware that 15,000 Canadians stormed Juno beach in the d-day invasion. Over 100 Canadian Naval vessels were involved. The RM not being invited is none of our business.

hadrian

As a genuine Presbyterian, I'll tell you what I think of his 'Presbyterian conscience' and that is- Presbyterian, my foot! Broon was reared in the Kirk which long ago ditched the unpalatable but nevertheless accurate truth of Presbyterianism which is totally incompatible with socialism and its foolish messianic politics. Broon is in this as much else a complete fraud.