As Prime Minister, he will have
to lead in good times as well as
bad, warns richard ehrman |
|
Amid all the claim and counter-claim, analysis and spin, that followed last week's local polls in England and parliamentary and assembly elections in Scotland and Wales, only one thing was missing.
Has anyone seen or heard from Gordon Brown since the party he is about to lead took such a terrible pasting in all three contests?
Come Friday morning, the SNP leader Alex Salmond and the Lib Dems' Sir Ming Campbell were on every programme. David Cameron was here, there and everywhere, trying not to let the Tory gain of nearly 900 council seats go to his head, despite everyone having said they could not get more than 600.
Even Tony Blair put in a cameo appearance, claiming (surely tongue-in-cheek) that
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Has anyone seen or heard from Brown since the party he is about to lead took such a pasting? |
|
|
Labour's massive losses were 'a perfectly decent springboard for victory' at the next election. In Wales, Labour had its worst result for 90 years, which is almost as long as it has existed, but that did not stop its leader, Rhoddri Morgan, having his say.
But where was Gordon, the man who in just a few months is guaranteed to replace Blair as Prime Minister - albeit unelected, even by his own party?
If he has said anything at all over the weekend, it was so sotte voce that no one heard it. Instead we have had the usual anonymous briefing from the Brown camp, and even that has told us nothing new.
In Whitehall they call the Chancellor "Macavity" because, like TS Eliot's cat, whenever there is trouble he disappears. But a prime minister, even an unelected one, has to be able to lead in bad times as well as good. Briefing is not leadership, and when the going gets tough it can look suspiciously like funk. Someone should tell Gordon as much - if they can find him.
FIRST POSTED MAY 7, 2007
|
