Brown: "I Know Nothing About Anything"

Adam Boulton has just nailed Brown live on air. Did Brown know about the rule change for ministers in 2004 which let them make money on their second homes, asked Boulton. Brown denied everything, looking terribly Nixonian. Pressed by Boulton, he repeated the denial and then attacked Boulton for clutching at straws. We shall see.

Brown then denied us our general election again by claiming that he was 'doing the job [he] was elected to do'. Er, when exactly was that, Gordo?

He hasn't 'finished the job', he says. The job of destroying the country in every conceivable way possible, I think he must mean. It was an astonishing, appalling, train-wreck interview for Brown - his worst yet - and one which Labour MPs (and ministers) will have watched with a mounting sense of horror as it went on, with an increasingly rattled and hostile Brown looking more and more isolated. This is a man under siege; or a wild animal, cornered, wounded and ready to lash out.

Brown's expression at the end was telling, therefore, too: he glared at the man who had just beasted him with razor sharp charm with undisguised hatred. Yes, hatred. One day very soon, Brown will crack on air and the violent temper of this dreadful man will be on display for all to see. It very nearly happened today. Again. I wish I could have heard what Brown said to Bolton after the interview. He looked like he wanted to kill him.

==Update==
Politicos have to be careful what they say to Boulton because he's a pretty free spirit who will speak his own mind on his blog (unlike that twat Nick Robinson). So it's probably not a very good idea to try to bully him, as, it appears, I was right in assuming Brown had. Here's a bit of what Boulton says in his blog entry on the interview, aptly titled 'Boiling Brown':

....there are still some questions to which I feel Mr Brown did not give a clear answer:
1) If Hazel Blears’ behaviour over her mortgages was in his words “totally unacceptable” why is she still in his cabinet?
2) Why is her behaviour totally unacceptable when Mr Brown has defended other cabinet ministers, including some such as Alistair Darling who have repaid money?

He says it’s to do with avoiding paying tax, but others also organised their affairs to be: “tax efficient”.

...Mr Brown became heated when I asked him why the Labour Government changed the rules in 2004 making it permissible for ministers to flip the designation on their homes often, to their apparent financial benefit.

Mr Brown threatened that I had better be able to prove “my allegations”, while denying that he had anything to do with the change, or even knew about it.

To make it clear, I am saying that a rule change was made, and that that had the effect of helping ministers improve their financial position.

I do not have the evidence to prove that the two factors were linked.

But I have now asked the Prime Minister and a member of the cabinet why the change was made, and have received no explanation.

Finally, on two other topics in the news some interesting developments:

Following GM’s filing for bankruptcy the Prime Minister says he hopes “most of the jobs at Vauxhall can be saved” - looks like there will be some redundancies then.

And on the Queen’s absence from this week’s 65th anniversary of D-Day – something I still find astonishing given that the Heads of State of both America and France will be present – Mr Brown, who will be attending, said it had nothing to do with him.

More Pontius Pilate than Caligula, then - or maybe the worst bits of both in one man. Hope Sky put the link up soon. I want to see it again!

==Update 2==
Here it is: