Fear and loathing in Downing Street
James Forsyth 9:49am
Toby Helm’s piece in the Telegraph on the mood in Downing Street is this morning's must read. Helm reports that it was the Brownite old guard who leaked Stephen Carter’s plan to bring back Tony Blair’s old speechwriter Phil Collins in an attempt to stop it from happening.
It also seems that Brown’s paranoia has returned, Helm recounts that: “The rustling of the Blairites has merely added to Mr Brown's unease. During a visit to Arsenal's Emirates Stadium this week with President Sarkozy, the Prime Minister was annoyed to see Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's former chief of staff, with whom he never got on, appear through the crowd. Mr Powell had been invited by the Anglo-French Council.
"What is he doing here?" the PM appeared to growl. He was even more distracted from his duties as host to the president when the young pretender to Number 10, Miliband, arrived and greeted Mr Powell before the two went off for a private chat - more than enough evidence for any Brownite of a Blairite plot.” With Labour behind by double-digit in the polls and the economic situation set to get worse, it is hard to see how Brown gets back on track. But the man is nothing if not resilient and he has at least another 18 months to try and turn things round.
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Comments
Jumbo O'Reilly
March 29th, 2008 10:32am"the man is nothing if not resilient": what is the evidence for this oft-repeated assertion? Is it true, or does it belong with the "towering intellect" we used to hear so much about?
RW
March 29th, 2008 11:43amBrown's paranoia stems from his deep mistrust of others. He sees them as a threat. Like his obssessive planning and strategising, relentless need to control the smallest details of events, reluctance to acknowledge contradictory views to his own, brooding secrecy and indecisiveness, the paranoia is a permanent feature of his dysfunctional personality and can't be changed. It never went away. I suspect Brown is deeply unhappy, without ever being able to properly acknowledge why. But one thing's certain, the job for which he waited so long is steadily slipping from his grasp.
RW
March 29th, 2008 12:00pmPS blog page 1 has gone into italics - you need a at the end of this post!
Fergus Pickering
March 29th, 2008 12:03pmHe hasn't had to be resilient. Blair had to be because he had this bloody man Brown digging away next door. Blair was a bad Prime Minister. Brown is not even that, he's just a useless, well, you know what the poet said.
Oscar Miller
March 29th, 2008 3:06pmNot a good weekend for Brown. Take a look at Ann Treneman's hilarious article in The Times - 'Gordon Brown: Stalin to Has-been'. It's shatteringly accurate.
Out to Lunch
March 29th, 2008 4:35pmAccording to the Guardian, McBean managed to say in his famously unscripted speech in Aviemore that Nelson Mandela was freed in our lunchtime (instead of lifetime)! The stress is definitely beginning to show.
Bernard from Horsham
March 29th, 2008 7:13pmWhy should anyone be surprised at this? It's been clear for some while how Gordo runs the bunker. If you have someone in charge who is continually being plotted against it's all going to end in tears...sooner rather than later hopefully.
Of course the plotting is a reaction to the way he has behaved over the last 15 yrs. What goes around comes around.
Max Kaye
March 29th, 2008 8:50pm"the man is nothing if not resilient" - only in the way that a nasty smell on one's shoe is 'resilient' until the crap is thoroughly removed and disinfected.
Napoleon
March 29th, 2008 11:50pmTotally agree that "the man is nothing if not resilient”! After all the guy waited for more than 10 years to be where he is. He put up with all the blairite stuff, and he survived, even if he now finds himself in a hole. I know I'm not the only person to think that Stephen Carter appointment was a very "unbrownite" thing to do, and it seems to be a good thing, if Brown is prepared to listen to his advices (and the brownites decide to stop this campaign against him), maybe things could get better for him (I don't doubt anything when I see that the Labour lead was 14% some months ago, and when I remember that the Observer headline was "Cameron in meltdown", and a week later they had "Brown in crisis")