Brown to take a pounding during the summer 

There is a lot of debate in Westminster about whether the summer break will be good for Gordon Brown’s standing or not. Labour optimists argue that over the summer, people will drift back to the party. But Iain Martin in The Sunday Telegraph points out one of the flaws in this theory: 

Here’s a prediction. By the end of August, millions of Britons will be grumbling about the level of the pound, and it will be a live issue as the nation returns from its holidays.

It will not top the list of complaints but will feed concern over inflation, the state of the economy and Gordon Brown’s mangling of the public finances. The fall in the value of the pound is one of the unreported stories of the moment. If folk’s summer holidays push it up the agenda, then that’s bad news for Gordon.