Vote now: where did it all go wrong for Brown?

BrianSJ

My vote is with Jeff Randall; when they started lying.

Julie

BrianSJ, that'll be 1994 then!

Judith Robinson

His lying in his promise for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

David C

It's got to be 'others'.
Brown ripped up his own electoral Manifesto when he didn't give the people the EU referendum.
Total contempt for the voters.

Ian Stewart

The job of Chief Executive is immensly difficult, very few people have the talent to accomplish this task. He thought he could do it, he fell woefully short and was very rapidly found out.
He is, quite simply, not up to the job!

Xiablo

Quite aside from the election farce, the 10p tax debacle, abject failure to divorce himself from the errors of the Blair administrations and his inability to come across to people as human, it was Northern Rock and Labour’s mishandling of changed economic circumstances that have done most to irreparably damage his reputation and ruin any prospect of re-election.

Bernard from Horsham

It wasn't just one thing. It was mainly George Osborne outflanking Labour (Inheritance tax) and then Darling trying to cobble together a response, that IMHO was when the narrative changed towards the Tories leading the debate. Cameron's speech helped a lot, and Gordon's fatuous visit to IRAQ was another serious error of judgment, all the other mistakes just followed on one after the other.
10p just went towards proving Gordon did thinks for personal political gain and not in the interests of the nation

An honorable mention must go to the deadful interview with Marr.

J H Holloway

Months ago, when it all started to tip over, I remembered a piece by Matthew Paris from last summer, which made very clear Brown never had a decent idea in his whole life, and never would.

I found it and linked it into CiF. It might be worth doing it again.

Brown is still praised for Bank of England independence. But he botched the way that banking was policed, giving the job to the FSA - result, Northern Rock.

He robbed the best private pension system in Europe blind, he took housing costs out of the inflation calculations and caused a massive property boom, he massively increased public sector employment (causing council tax rises) and has spent money like water.

The government spends £600bn per year, double what John Major had to play with. And to what end?

In short, it went wrong for Brown when all the landmines he laid for the country in his stupidity, started to go off in the last 12 months.

Athesius the Facilitator

Having just got back from Greece 20 mins ago. My wife and I have just brought back a pair of annus 'orribles as we are dying from some tummy bug. Its all true folks! I think his annus horribilis was kicked off by his visit to Iraq and went in off the post via a back pass to the goalie via Noono Electo. Things have gotten worse and worse since.
But he can have as many successes as he likes from now on. He can't win. It's his personality thats the problem.
And as for somebody else to lead the party. Read Quentin Letts thursday column in the Mail.(It costs 2.50 euro in Aghos Geordios)I think Milliband could make things worse. Oh dear!
P.S. I was looking for Polly Toynbees big posh house but then I remembered it's in Tuscany. Silly me.

Ben

Osborne's speech on inheritance tax started the ball rolling and put Brown in a corner on calling the election. The rest is history.

Elizabeth Elliot-Pyle

As one who voted for "other" I would like to say that it was the denial of a referendum that had been promised on Lisbon.
However, all the other reasons given for how it all went wrong are perfectly valid: for me it started with the selling of our gold (which even then struck me as incredibly stupid - replacing gold with EUROS?????) followed by the pensions theft and so on and so on.
Culminating with the 10p tax fiasco, northern rock. Lying repeatedly to the (as they see them) studpid electorate. How many things can one man get wrong? - but as I say, it was the refusal to honour a manifesto committment that did it for me.

maxgood

The means testing of pensioners,familes,to much government and new laws.Over taxing the lowpayed, under taxing the over payed.The loss of any idea of what working people need or fear.

Oscar

George Osborne got it right - 2007 was the year that Gordon Brown got found out. The emperor never did have any clothes.

Wilf

It was when Brown said to the electorate, 'my party didn't feel it necessary to put me through an election, and I don't feel it necessary for you to put me through an election'.

The rest of it was just the salt in the wound.

(I've loathed him -and the rest of 'em- from the beginning).

chris

Regarding giving the Bank of England independence: Hawke and Keating did this in Australia over a decade before. I also think Brown doesn't have any original ideas. He is obviously obsessed by American politics and his attempt to be a JFK clone, with a ghosted book on "courage", didn't win him the Pulitzer Prize!

Maria

My 'election that wasn't' includes Lisbon. He's just completed Blair's gift to europe...Britain.

Water

The election that wasn't wouldn't have caused any fuss were it not for the onslaught of errors. Sorry wouldn't cover the amount of errors he's made, he simply not fit for the role.

Nobby

Definitely, the election that wasn't. Not just because it exposed New Labour as gutless but because it contrasted so starkly with an ad hoc speech by David Cameron which drew much applause and appreciation at that time.

Jane

It's a whole host of things, most of which have been mentioned above. Probably the thing that triggered the massive slide was George Osborne's IH speech. Suddenly every Conservative in the country was energised. Here was a small sign that our Party might actually have some Conservative ideas and policies. This wave of relief took off across the country and was picked up by the Press. After that GB could do nothing right.

Verity

Elizabeth Elliott-Pyle. Me too. I voted other. If the poll had been set up so we could check all the buttons, I would have done that. There is no one thing. He is simply an arrogant, petty-spirited incompetent with ideas far above his abilities. Like most socialists, in fact.

Verity

PS - and the sheer bad manners and grandstanding of attending his first Mansion House dinner as Chancellor in a lounge suit. What the hell was that all about?

And why a lounge suit? If he wasn't going to show up in the correct attire, why not just arrive in a Burberry shell suit, or swimming trunks with a snorkel attached to his head?

Frankly, his bizarre decision reeked of the uppityness of the socially insecure.

Tara

It was 'Boy George Osborne wot done it'. His IHT announcement went down a storm, not just at Conservative conference but all over 'Middle England'. The Tories then had Brown cornered. Fox and Major landed blows by calling him out in the media over visiting troops in Iraq, for propaganda purposes. Then Cameron put the boot in with his fantastic speech and they went eyeball to eyeball over an early election and Brown blinked. Cameron was the victor!