Where it all went wrong for Brown - your verdict

Water

Everything could have been salvaged till the Lisbon debacle, the rest seem like the garnish around a final nail in the coffin.

The Laughing Cavalier

The causes that you give concentrate on the last year as if to say that everything was going swimmingly until June 2007. In fact the underlying causes go back to to the early 1990s. Brown's obsession with the top job and his belief that he was entitled to it led him to run the economy so as to sacrifice it on the altar of his ambition. That, a complete lack of experience as to how a market works and general incompetence have led to this sorry state. Choosing Mr Balls as chief droogie didn't help either.

Water

True but the recent public discontent really came to boil with the treaty and it's the matter of late that will resonate due its nature.

Water

In the words of Will smith last night "if there's one thing I can't stand it's a filthy rotten liar".

Adam McNestrie

The explanation of Labour’s humbling is fourfold. Firstly, Brown made a great deal of his non-partisan integrity, his spinlessness, before maladroitly revealing in the election-that-never-was that this was a pose. Secondly, Brown is suffering from the resentment of a commentariat forced to spend a lot of its time with its eyes focused on a deeply uncharismatic, boring man. Thirdly, Brown spent so long crafting his political identity in opposition to Tony Blair that when it became necessary to define himself against the Tories, he was seen to cynically reverse his previous positions. Fourthly, the economy has gone to the devil.

The answer to the question “Where did it all go wrong?” is that Brown adopted the wrong tactics in 2007, had the wrong character for a shallow entertainment-hungry commentariat, was hampered by his previous political positioning and suffered the ill-luck of the turn in the global economy.

To read more of my views read my blog, Just who the hell are we?, at:
http://adammcnestrie.wordpress.com/

Christopher Rose

With Brown, the fundamental issue is always Brownies. The Election That Wasn't would have been far less of an issue if he had talked honestly about his change of mind. The 10p Tax Fiasco would not have happened if he had explained fully what he was doing in the first place. People who don't tell the truth find it almost impossible to say they are sorry: to do so requires an openness and frankness which is alien to them. And surely the reason for the Stitch-up was his fear of an open honest election and all that that might reveal.

PT

The 10p scam for me. I've never seen so much anger outside the confined circles of political blogs and forums. My mother, a staunch Labour supporter for 40 years, voted Tory (who won) in last weeks North Tyneside by-election.

At the time of "the election that wasn't", many still believed that Labour were doing a decent job. Labour supporters went along with decision. The Tory's were just annoyed.

As for Fraser's excellent Brownies, I doubt the general public pay much - if any - attention to Brown's play on statistics. Same goes for MSM. How often to you see a newspaper or BBC/Sky/C4 fail to question Brown's deceit? Often enough IMO.

David C

Christopher Rose.
Brown couldn't explain the 10p Tax Band abolition. Just as he could not explain turning his back on the EU referendum.
Brown wanted to fulfil Blair's pledge to 'serve a full third term' by holding a General Election after the springboard of the Party Conference.
With a GE, the Labour Party has no need to mention the EU Referendum in its new Manifesto.
The 22p to 20p tax cut is for the middle income earners - Brown can discount the low paid, after all, the poor have nowhere else to go - and holding on to the medium earners in society means that Labour wins.
With Cameron in poor shape in the polls just before the Conservative Party Conference everything was perfect for Labour.
Win the GE, get rid of Cameron, kill the Tory Party.

Makes you believe in God, eh?