Gordon Is An Oximoron

He pays tribute to the dead but does nothing about the wars. He's a guardian of civil liberties but happy to bring in internment without charge or trial. He believes in the voice of the people but refuses an EU Referendum on a major constitutional issue. He's careful with public money but happy to borrow billions, fix the books and plunge this country into debt.

Brown's  oximoronic spin plunged to new depths last week with the sight of pale, tired New Labour ministers at an 'olympic-sized' swimming pool. There to justify the forthcoming Olympic fiasco, all dutifully reported by, er, the BBC's cricket correspondent. 

As if throwing a few bob at swimming can make up for the £7 billion or so to be spent on the 2012 London Olympics. Like Brown, his New Labour cronies stood on the side but none of them dared dip their toes in the water.

Tonight's Channel 4 Dispatches - 'Gordon Brown:Where Did It All Go Wrong?' will be a chance for some New (and True) Labour politicians to explain, well, where it all went wrong.

And this week, 42 days has been plucked out of thin air (why not 43 or 37?) to be spun as a test of Brown's leadership. With enough bribes, compromises and fudges, Brown may scrape through - and the BBC will no doubt gleefully report that Brown has 'survived a test of his leadership'. Has he heck. He's playing with fundamental liberties for short term political gain. 

Meanwhile, as a legal challenge to the non UK Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty/Constitution gets underway in the High Court, the Irish Republic (ROI)  may well say No in its Referendum. In the UK people would be happy just for a chance to vote either way. 

And guess who's due to drop by on his farewell world tour this week? Yes Brown's new buddy George 'special relationship' Bush. But unlike his contradictory stances in the past, this time Brown won't dither. He will he meet him, be photographed with him, touch him, sign him.

Maybe Bush will be here to offer Brown a job when he quits as PM (does Enron need a new accountant?). But we''ll probably have to wait until after the September Labour Party conference before he's prised out.

Just like his predecessor, the public school boy Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, Brown is a contradiction in terms. And that's why people don't like him.