Robinson Misses Point (As Usual)

Brown: "Supplies Getting Through"

Mediocre BBC politics pundit Nick Robinson, of whom I generally think very little, misses the point entirely, as usual, about the problem with Gordon Brown.

The latest rumblings about the underfunded, underequipped and understaffed mission in Afghanistan (what was that mission again?) caused by the resignation of some Scots trougher MP and ex-tartan Rupert called Joyce, in response to the smearing of senior officers among many other things (like that total moron, Ainsworth, being promoted over his head by Brown), have nothing to do with Brown's "leadership of the war effort", as Robinson (not the Sun) characterises it, but everything to do simply with Brown's leadership - period.

The resignation of a junior ministerial aide would matter little if it weren't for the fact that Eric Joyce is a former army officer and is echoing, in public, concerns and criticisms many in the military make in private. Fortunately, for Gordon Brown, he has a speech already written as a reply to his critics.

The prime minister is much more worried about losing the backing of the military, and of papers like the Sun, which have attacked him for showing no leadership of Britain's war effort - than he is of losing Eric Joyce. He is most concerned though about losing the argument.

Today, he will try to convince his own MPs, the military and the public of the value of his war mission, to describe what success looks like and to prove that our troops are not being left under-resourced.

If he does not begin to do that, he has a much much bigger problem than the resignation of a junior member of his defence team.

Not so, and Joyce's own letter did not really make the point very well either, though I am certain that he wanted it to. Brown's "bigger problem" is the most fundamental a leader can have: no one thinks he can lead. Today's speech, if it is the same, pre-written one as Robinson claims it will be, will merely further confirm how inflexible and convinced by his own sense of righteousness, but at the same time, moved by dishonest and unprincipled pragmatism and total, paranoiac insecurity Brown is. So full of contradictions and serious character flaws is this man that leadership of a MacDonalds would be a severe mental challenge for him. Leadership of a major Western power (let alone during a war)? Exactly!

But that, folks, is our Prime Minister. I don't think the troops will be paying much attention to him, unless he's planning on announcing his resignation. Do you?

The Purnell Effect

Messiahs Die Young

There comes a time in every young man's life when he realises he will never be Prime Minister. It seems that time has not yet come for James Purnell, who, it can now be confidently speculated, harbours not-so private ambitions to take over the salvage operation of the heavily damaged Labour ship, rudderless and drifting, after the final electoral salvoes blow the remainder of its current, clueless crew out of the water, probably in 2010, but maybe sooner. His plotting is misconceived, in my view, however, since the fault lines running through the Labour Party are so deep these days, it is quite possible it will cease to exist in its present form after it is destroyed in the GE. It's impossible to lead a party in a state of civil war - and certainly no fun at all.

Yet there seem to be quite a few Labourists ready to take up the challenge, one of whom is Purnell. But hoping that some sort of unifying "Purnell Effect" will pull the many claques, cliques and factions into a coherent body seems to me to be just another woolly-headed pipe dream. For one thing, where is there any evidence that Purnell isn't just another bog-standard Nulab intellectual lightweight? Apart from his resignation from Brown's cabinet, that is.

No matter how much he might want it, he's not up to the job. Let's hope he gets it, then. I can only assume that the recent outbreak of Purnell-worship in the right press is in fact a product of this ulterior motive: to sabotage Labour for a further decade by encouraging it to elect a twit like Purnell as its post-apocalypse leader. Otherwise, it's just journo-luvvie, village nonsense (and if we've come to expect that kind of crap from the Telegraph, I for one demand more from the Spectator).

Despite all this, it just goes to show how paranoid they've become that the Brownite faction is in a right old tizzy over Purnell's manoeuvres, with over-rated lunatic Edward Balls last night launching a radarless exocet in his direction (which, it seems, failed to explode as it impacted harmlessly on the Daily Telegraph, to the sound of general hilarity in camp Purnell).

“There are times when individuals in their early 40s have crises. They buy motorbikes or go off and travel round the world and have a gap year. Sometimes people do that. I don’t think for political parties to have those kinds of moments is very sensible, especially when you are at your moment of greatest clarity and vision.”

Mr Balls can hardly hide his disdain for Mr Purnell’s latest career move, joining a Left-wing think tank.

He says now is not the time “to be going off to think tanks to find out what your identity really is”.

You would think the particular claque that Balls leads, however - let's call it the "Gordon for World Emperor" brigade (I don't want to exaggerate) - would steer clear of the word "crises" given that they seem to attract, create and mishandle them at a rate which defies all analysis. As for "clarity and vision" - well, it's difficult to know whether to put my fist through the monitor in fury at the sheer scale of the mendacity, or to seek medical attention for uncontrollable laughter. Best stop reading Balls' bollocks for now, then.

What an outburst like Balls' usually proves, however, is that Brown's rating on his (unique) vulnarability meter has just ticked-up several notches after his complacent reaction to the Norwich North fiasco failed miserably to strike the right note of contrition and regret his fearful party required. The real Purnell effect, therefore, is that he's acting as a defective lightning rod for criticism of Brown. Instead of that criticism earthing harmlessly through him, it's become a focused, million-volt discharge crackling all over the Number 10 bunker and short-circuiting all the low-grade robots like Balls which dwell therein. Brown is unprepared this time for the kind of summer storm he barely weathered last year.

Speculation about his imminent demise just became front page news again, folks. Yippee.

Cabinet Fractures

Ian Dale suggeststhat Gordon Brown's cabinet is tearing itself to bits with bitter power struggles going on almost constantly.

I'm not sure the Sunday papers are going to make happy reading for Peter Mandelson. Simon Walters has the story [in the Mail on Sunday] of how Mandy refused to talk to Gordon Brown until he asked Shaun Woodward to leave the room (hilarious).
But more seriously for Mandelson, the Sunday Times accuses him of covering up a report into MG Rover.

Mandelson's almost mystical ability to spread discord is hurting Brown now. Mind you, there can be no sympathy for the auld fraud: if you try to make a deal with the devil, somewhere down the road you're gonna get burnt.

What motivates this pair is probably beyond rational thought. I would hazard, though, that with the former, it is vanity on a legendary scale and with the latter, it is unprincipled, demagoguic fanaticism combined with a delusional sense of his own importance. One thing they have in common is their ability to alienate almost everyone unfortunate enough to have to work for them - and to lie constantly, deliberately and without the slightest compunction. No wonder Labour is in total disarray.

There's more, though. Add to this the story in the Sunday Telegraph that Alan Johnson acted unilaterally in the so-called U-turn over ID cards - he didn't tell Brown he was going to do it - and the Independent on Sunday's report of a new backbench rebellion brewing over the 10p tax fiasco, and you have a perfect picture of government paralysis.

You would be forgiven for suggesting that an electorate battered by a severe slump, rising unemployment and a debt crisis that's become nothing short of a national emergency deserves far, far better than this. And you would be right. One question that's beginning to loom large, consequently, as the economic situation continues to deteriorate (despite what certain quarters of the press would have us believe) and government in-fighting escalates is where will it all end?

History suggests an answer to that question: collapse.