Not a Good Week for the Browns
Jerry Hayes reckons Gordon Brown made a bit of an arse of himself this week. And as for Labour MP Lyn Brown, well...
16 Jul 2011, 13:19
Brown: Would have been better to have said nothing
It really was a remarkable primal scream which seemed to unleash all his frustrations, angst and deep personal turmoil of being dumped by Murdoch and losing the General Election.
It made Edvard Munch’s daub look like a jolly stroll along the sea front.
The trouble with Gordo (now there’s a psychiatric doctoral thesis which will keep some of the finest brains occupied for years) is that he seems to think that being deserted by Murdoch actually lost him the election.
No old son. You achieved that little feat all by yourself by convincing the public that you are a socially autistic control freak who surrounds himself by a deeply unpleasant Praetorian Guard of enforcers for whom no act is capable of being too despicable.
It is a gift for Cameron. Every time you see the mad, raging face of Brown throwing a wobbly, you subconsciously think, Balls, Mcbride, Miliband, the three unwise monkeys who worshipped at his feet.
I’ve always found it rather eerie, in the full Hitchcockian sense, that when most of the Labour Party with half a brain realised that the most sensible thing to do with Brown is lock him in the attic and throw away the key Miliband exclaimed in horror, “that it would be like murdering our father”.
You rather get the impression that the poor boy would talk to the embalmed body of the old fellow in the basement every night before going to bed.
Compare Brown’s ravings to another Prime Minister who was treated quite abominably by the Murdoch press; John Major. Have we seen him emerging from Rupert’s cabin, like a scene from Murder of the Orient Express, with a sly grin and a dripping dagger? Of course not.
He would have had every reason to after The Sun’s Kelvin MacKenzie rang him up at Number 10 to tell Major about the next day’s front page.
“So what are you going to do Kelvin?” enquired the Prime Minister. “Well, John imagine that on my desk there is a large bucket of shit and that tomorrow I’m going to pour it all over you”.
But no grave dancing, or whoops of glee from Major.
It’s called dignity, Gordon.
Ah, and now for the other Brown in the news, Labour whip and MP for West Ham, Lyn Brown. Clearly Ms. Brown is an extremely busy and important person and woe betide anyone who gets in the way of her stately progress through the Commons.
So, as it’s the national sport to bash a journo this week, she barges one out of the way using the sort of language that would make a fish wife blush. Now clearly Ms Brown is not very bright, because you’d have thought that the guide dog was a bit of a give away, but even when she did realise that it was blind from birth, Talksport political editor Sean Dilley, whom she had caused considerable distress, she still told him to fuck off.
On just about every level this is pretty shitty behaviour, but it is compounded by the fact that Sean is one of the nicest people in Westminster.
This girl will go far. At the next election.
The author
Jerry Hayes
Jerry Hayes is a former Conservative MP and leading barrister defending and prosecuting high profile cases
Full profile →
Comments (2)
Subscribe to this posts's comments feed
If you believe that Labour politics is all about emotion, a moral superiority and a reality bypass, then this all makes sense.
16/07/2011 19:56If a whip with honour had done that, they would have resigned in shame!
However, a whip with honour would not have done it in the first place.
Had Miliband an ounce of sense and decency and honour, he would have sacked her.
Not much honour in Labour these days, is there?
18/07/2011 00:06