Anthony Barnett (London,OK): Following up on yesterday's post the sense grows that Labour is girding what remains of its loins to insist that Brown resigns. The signal of deterrence from his Norfolk seaside bunker was fired by George Pascoe-Watson, the political editor of the Sun.
Why doesn’t he just succumb to the assassins lining him up in their sights? Life would be so much easier. He could take a lucrative international job and to hell with the plotters, the “pygmies”.
But the plotters had better watch out. The PM is in no mood to welcome a delegation of “men in grey suits” telling him his time is up for the good of the party.
For him, the sole concern is NOT the Labour Party.
He has told friends his response will be short, to the point, and amount to just two words.
Allies say he is worried far more about getting Britain — and the world — through the credit crunch relatively unscathed. And ensuring it is never repeated. He tells pals he doesn’t want Labour to be written off for a generation because of an economic crisis. And Mr Brown feels a deep sense of personal responsibility to the nation. He is convinced he is one of the few men in the world with the experience and know-how to solve the financial meltdown.
So now we know.
Interesting that such an authoritative account includes the word "pygmies" in quotes. Whose description would that be, then? Is this Gordon Brown's "bastards" moment? (I'm referring to when John Major described some Cabinet colleagues across an inadvertently open mike).
But even the friendly Pascoe-Watson admits,
in private, many senior Labour figures have all but given up on him. It takes an awful lot of digging to find anyone who genuinely believes he should stay.
Big party names are biding their time until September. Then we will see what they’re made of and the extent of their determination to wield the knife. An attempt to topple Mr Brown will almost certainly be made.
Their determination is captured by Jackie Ashley who was rumoured to have been considered as Brown's press officer when he went into No 10 and remains an effusive supporter of the man and his qualities. In today's Guardian she could hardly have been firmer: his time is up. I don't need to repeat why I think she is right (although oD's Editor in Chief has promised a post about why Brown could well stay and see if he can indeed save the world, or at least the UK, from "financial meltdown").
But I think it is getting worse. There is a long record of Downing Street turning people mad. Does the one is not a pigmy really think he alone has been called to save us from the world crisis? Doesn't he feel any responsibility for having bet the house (if that is an appropriate analogy) on Alan Greenspan's Washington consensus?
Mary Riddell is as sympathetic as anyone can be. Following a pre-Glasgow column, yesterday she wrote,
Despite his mistakes (not least under-estimating Cameron), Mr Brown is still a rarity in his miserable party; a politician of passion, conviction and hope. Anyone who's seen him in the last weeks is struck by his bafflement that he can't communicate his message.
He feels, though he doesn't put it quite like this, that he's shouting at the country through sound-proofed glass.
There's a missing synapse, and he doesn't know how to get the connection back. As a No 10 insider says: "We haven't yet made the connection between Gordon and the British electorate."
Mary doesn't buy the argument herself. But thinks he is still in with a chance and that he has got to "dare to be brave". What strikes me is how wrong Brown and that Downing Street advisor are. The fact is that he did connect to the country. Voters heard his message after he took over at No 10. They liked what they heard and also the way that he said it. Only it turned out that he didn't mean it. He promised to be different in domestic policy terms from Blair. he hasn't been. Brown may think they can't hear him - but the voters think that they have. Denigrating his colleagues for their diminutive stature sounds to me like the death-rattle. And if he feels that he is shouting at sound-proofed glass then oh dear....
