Sympathy for Gordon Brown is not a common emotion in Westminster, but this week only the coldest heart could fail to feel for the Prime Minister. It is mortifying to have misspelt the name of a fallen soldier, even if the mistake was minor. To have his misery played out in front of the national media, complete with a taped conversation of him being berated by the soldier’s mother, can only have been devastating.
But the power of this sorry episode lies in the truths it represents. Jacqui Janes, whose Grenadier Guardsman son Jamie, 20, was killed last month, was richly entitled to berate the Prime Minister for the lack of equipment in Afghanistan. It was his decision to fight two wars on a peacetime military budget. The widow of Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe (who was killed by a roadside bomb in July after warning about the lack of helicopters) would have felt no less angry. What is rare is grief and anger being aired so publicly.
This speaks volumes about 10 Downing Street. Every Prime Minister has his foibles, and handwritten notes are one of Mr Brown’s weakest points. Every note he sends should be checked. Yet Number 10 is in meltdown, and we have caught a glimpse of a wider dysfunctionality. The most important point to have come across this week is that Mr Brown still struggles, on every level, to communicate why Britain is in Afghanistan. A lack of resolve at home undermines the campaign in the field.
It is greatly to Mr Brown’s credit that he takes the time to write to families of the fallen. His poor handwriting is, of course, a function of his imperfect eyesight. No one can doubt that the regret the Prime Minister expressed this week was genuine. But these small failures of communication highlight a bigger failure to explain clearly to the nation why we are still in Afghanistan at all. Until that changes, Mrs Janes will be far from alone in finding the mounting death toll so hard to accept.
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