Hello, it's Gordon here. I just wanted to explain...

Water

This is beyond belief!?$*@

bt

He must be really desperate. Won't work either, he's notorious for providing answers (well, more like a stream of consciousness gabble) to questions he wished you'd asked rather than the one you did.
Tractor production statistics at 6am.
Wonderful.

Liz Upton

Is Carter really a Conservative secret agent? I think we should be told.

Perry, - dreading the phone call @ dawn - or will it be the clunking fist on the door?

Mz. Prudence, the Puffed-up, Prating Premier of Noo-Boring-Lies, announces that she will call you personally @ dawn, - though fine for Her, may get right up yours. © the Carter genius(aka ‘Tumbrel’ to his friends).

Austin Barry

Ambrose Bierce seems to have anticipate this event: "The telephone is an invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance."

Ian C

I thought all along we lived on planet earth but having read this I think we have all been picked up quietly and moved to a different one. The goods news is it could just be Heaven!

Richard Lowe

Have Brown and Carter been reading The Daily Mash? It is a Scottish site after all.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/labour-unveils-plan-to-lose-last-remaining-votes-20080527978/

la Connaitre

An entire case you say? What description of Champagne? I'm in no mood to be phoned by the prime minister at 6am if its for the sake of some lousy Marks & Sparks rip-off...

J H Holloway

Really? John Prescott used to do this with journalists. A friend got a call after he wrote something unpleasant about government transport policy in the Indy.

DougS

Truly bizarre . . . . Even if every call goes swimmingly, what does that do? Does he or one of his staff crow how brilliant he was? That's rude. Do they record it? That's somehow improper. Are folks expected to tell their friends what a great guy he is? How big a circle could that influence?

Surely the PM has other things to do that's more useful to the country and even more useful to his own political position.

What a dopey idea.

Sam

Its not new - apparently Blair used to ring people who wrote in supporting him during the Iraq war. Honestly, the guy tries to engage a little with members of the public, as opposed to them being fobbed off with a standard No 10 apparatchik letter- I'd have thought this was something to approve of.

Hysteria

the zeitgeist has moved - it doesn't matter if this is a good idea Sam, or completely loop.

Nothing he does will improve the public perception.

Oh - Richard - thanks for the Daily Mash link - brilliant!

Oscar

I thought Gordon Brown was meant to be a private man who just got on with the job. Not someone making bizarre personal calls in a bid to get people to like him. (They won't). Why does the man keep trashing his own brand?

Sean

Why does it not surprise me that Brown phoned a punter a 6am...speaks volumes (!)

Oscar

Seen the latest YouGov poll in tomorrow's Telegraph? Con 47 Lab 23 LD 18! 'Labour slumps to its lowest support since polling began'. The PR isn't working Gordon.

Kevyn Bodman

I disagree with most of the comments here, Sam's at 7.01pm being the exception.
However I do agree that Brown's position is irrecoverable.

The PM talking to voters, what is wrong with that?
I think some of the commenters here are so anti-Brown that their judgement has clouded over.
If Cameron were to do it I bet the same people would praise him.
Of course phoning someone at 6.00am is a mistake, easily rectified.
Of course there are other important calls on the PM's time, so he can't phone people all day.
But the idea of the PM phoning a voter who is opposed to his policies in order to discuss them, how can that be a bad idea?

Nicholas

"But the idea of the PM phoning a voter who is opposed to his policies in order to discuss them, how can that be a bad idea?"

Because it is essentially undemocratic. That voter already has a MP who is supposed to represent his views in parliament. It undermines the way parliament is supposed to work. Don't forget Brown promised an end to "sofa government".

It is inefficient. If the policies were properly thought out and communicated in the first place the public would understand them and not require this kind of desperate gimmick.

It is discriminatory. Labour already have a reputation for pandering to minority pressure groups. Why should one writer be singled out for a discussion and the others ignored? How do we know that it is random?

It is reactive. Brown did not come to power promising this. It has been trumpeted in reaction to his dreadful ratings. A cynical piece of spin.

It smacks of the e-petition which is time-wasting crap to make people feel as though they can make a difference. Also undemocratic and undermining of the parliamentary process.

If any of this made a difference to the way this government operates it might be justifiable. But it doesn't and won't. Will we see Brown stand up in parliament and say "I have been talking to Mr Disgusted of Bromley this morning and as a result I have decided that our policy on 42 days detention is wrong and should be withdrawn."? Of course not.

We have had e-petition the PM at No.10, question the PM on YouTube and now talk to the PM on the telephone. All about Brown, the cult of Brown and spin - which he promised an end to - and which he is manifestly ill-equipped to sustain. It seeks to maintain the idea of central command and control which already belongs in another age. Why just Brown and not the other cabinet ministers?

I'm cynically waiting for Brown to announce the launch of a PM's Speech, which will be broadcast to the nation on Christmas Day - oops, I mean Winterval Day.

Ted Tedford

Kevyn: I sort of agree with your injection of reasonableness. But the issue is more whether the calls serve any genuine purpose beyond creating the impression of engagement. I often bang on about the difference between process and outcome. This is the problem here.

What is the likely outcome of this (heavily managed) engagement? Is he calling people who have made persuasive points, about which he'd like to here more, before making a decision? Or is he calling people who can be bull-dozed with a few standard press office talking points?

The people he telephones are unlikely to be prepared to engage in a discussion. Instead, they'll be flattered, and won't push the issue, but will almost certainly tell their mates and the local paper 'I got a call from the PM!' The call becomes the story, not the complaint, or any outcome - other than generally positive reactions to this psuedo-engagement.

So is it a meaningful dialogue? Is he talking *with* them, or *at* them? Never having received a call, I am in no position to say, but you can surely understand the scepticism.

Sam

Though Ted is right that this is almost certainly a stunt, its got the potential to turn into something useful. And Kevyn is spot on - if Cameron did this, people here would be cheering it from the rooftops - "Cameron connects with the public" "Dave understands what real people are goping through". Its a classic horns and halo effect.

Oscar

Kevyn and Sam - I'm a great supporter of David Cameron but I certainly wouldn't cheer from the rooftops if he started cold calling people at home. For all the reasons Nicholas lays out, I'd be highly critical. I do hate Gordon Brown - but it's because he keeps staging PR stunts like this - at the same time as announcing he's the 'straight' guy who's ended spin. It's the gimmicks and hypocrisy (amongst other things) that make me dislike Gordon Brown - not the other way round.

DW

He could use his time more efficiently if he stood on a soapbox (like John Major) on a street corner. Then we could televise it the punters' interaction!

Ted Tedford

Sam: Like Oscar, I think I'd be criticizing Mr Cameron if he tried this ersatz interaction. I think DW is spot on when he suggests, however facetiously, that even a soap box would be better: at least it is proper interaction, and at least Mr Major stood to lose something if it went wrong.

There might have been some benefit to this 'initiative' if it had been kept secret. But with a clutch of PR 'experts' running the gaff, who clearly couldn't wait to tell everyone about their brilliant wheeze, that was never likely.

And Nicholas is exactly right when he calls it undemocratic as well as inefficient, to which I would also add opportunistic and insincere.

London Calling

Hello this is the Samaritans….

Oh its you dear Mr Brown

How very nice to speak to you

Are you coming round?

What was that you said… oh yes

It must be very hard

You better watch your back my dear

The countries up your….

Now don’t be silly all Men cry

Its not an easy Job

But someone’s got to do it

And it’s not me …Thank God.