Friday 5 December 2008

 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests


Wednesday, 19th December 2007

Brown meets the press

James Forsyth 12:29pm

The main news coming out of Gordon Brown’s monthly news conference is that nationalising Northern Rock is now clearly under serious consideration, with Brown and Alistair Darling both stressing that all options are on the table. The other notable thing was how Brown kept banging on about ‘the spirit of Christmas’ in, what came across on television, as a rather over the top fashion. One of the New Year’s resolutions for Brown’s media team must be to find a way of humanising him and allowing him to demonstrate some warmth and humour in a way that comes across as natural.

PS Bob Marshall-Andrews, who’d be disloyal to himself if he was Prime Minister, has come up with the most comprehensive take yet on the idea of Brown as a tragic Shakespearian figure, telling Michael White that Brown

'has the jealousy of Othello, the indecision of Hamlet, the futile rage of Lear and, like Brutus, he goes to the wrong people for advice.’ 
Can any Coffee Houser top that? 

 

Click here for this week's magazine

Blogs: Americano | Trading Floor | Clive Davis | Melanie Phillips | Stephen Pollard

Actions: Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (9)

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Comments

Fergus Pickering

December 19th, 2007 12:39pm

And when he's killed the king it all goes wrong for him and he ends up with his head on a pole (though that bit's still to come).

EyeSee

December 19th, 2007 12:53pm

Together Blair and Brown were Laurel and Hardy. On his own Brown is Homer Simpson.

Tiberius

December 19th, 2007 1:04pm

I don't know about topping that, but to me, the tragedy of Gordon Brown is akin to the fate of Star Wars' Anakin Skywalker, a man who seems destined to champion his creed, a force for good, but becomes consumed with the dark side in pursuit of unnatural powers. His fate, as the reviled Darth Vader, is inverse to his destiny as he suffers terrible personal loss after choosing a flawed route to happiness.

Tom

December 19th, 2007 1:52pm

Why can't we just stick with Macavity? He even got Darling along today to hide behind on the NR issue.

Amanda Huggenkiss

December 19th, 2007 4:12pm

He's more like Principal Seymour Skinner: the same laboured attempts at humour, the same risible conviction of his own authority. And Alistair Darling can be his Groundskeeper Willie. "That's the last time you'll slap your Willie around."

RW

December 19th, 2007 4:19pm

Macbeth - the single-minded lust for power and the betrayal of friends along the way. The Weird Sisters are phantasms conjured up by his own tortured psyche, making him promises of greatness he has been desperate to believe since adolescence. His brief Premiership has been a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying, well, not a lot. The only question remaining - who will be the MacDuff who symbolically beheads him (off-stage)?

Max Kaye

December 19th, 2007 7:21pm

Shakespearean comparisons flatter him. Shakespeare's characters were never blunt or clumsy. They were complex and capable of considerable self-doubt, reflection and wit. Cable Vincent had it right: Mr Bean.

Mrs Campbell

December 19th, 2007 7:32pm

Why is George Osborne (or whoever is representing whilst he is in China)not insisting that Northern Rock be put into administration (the British version of Chapter 11) in riposte to the insistence of the Government and the Lib Dems on Nationalisation. Administration is a court supervised procedure which enables experienced insolvency practitioners to get a grip on the business in order to see whether there is any real prospect of either working out of insolvency or a sale. Admittedly you have to pay them...but then the Treasury is not going to be administering Northern Rock if it is nationalised so will have to pay insolvency practitioners to do the job anyway. Could the answer be that the Treasury ordered the Bank of England to lend all that money without finding out about Granite and is hoping that a nationalisation will enable the Government to get round the European rules on lending money and to drift the whole problem off out of the public attention span before the serious lack of security is fully understood? Administration is the clean answer to a serious private sector problem. Losses this big need cutting sooner rather than later

Sepoy Agent

December 20th, 2007 8:40pm

How I shall miss Bob Marshall Andrews when he stands down. He has been a delight during his time in Parliament, never afraid to speak against his Party, and giving me much amusement.

Post a comment

Your comment:*

Your name:*

Your email address:*
(We won't publish this)

*Required information

Please click the button only once - your comment will not be published immediately

The Spectator Parliamentarian Awards
Spectator Book Club
The Spectator Billabong
Blog
Spectator recommends

Golf Shop on eBay

Shoes, apparel & many more golfing goods when you search online now.


Spectator classifieds

ROME CENTRE

PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique

City Breaks. ROME and PARIS

ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit  www.romanreference.com  and  www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.

Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).

Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs!  You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other