A Depressingly Bad Brown Day

Suffering from a bad case of depression, things got a whole lot worse for Brown, as influential US website Drudge featured the trials and tribulations of the beleaguered prime minister for the second day running and Blair stole a march on his old foe, sneaking in a quick prayer with the other Messiah.

Drudge has clearly latched onto the mood of the moment and is doing his best to spread it around the world. 

And that's not a good thing for last Davos Man standing and his hapless bid to be the world leader to save the world and the banks but not the workers back home. 

No-one should underestimate the power of Drudge who famously blew the gaff on Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and Prince Harry taking the fight to tommy Taliban. 

Yesterday it was Brown's depressing slip of the tongue which Drudge winged round the world, highlighting the commons 'slip' and the dreaded D-word. 

Today it's a report from international financial analyst Bloomberg with a depressing report of a UK riddled with spreading strikes, short-time working and thousands of job cuts in the Winter of Discontent. 

The credibility of the prime minister has taken a severe beating on the home front recently but when that credibility is hung out to dry on the world stage, it's like watching a wounded dog die. 

Now Brown's only crumb of comfort has been dashed, pinning his hopes on a pre-election world leader's meeting with the Chosen One, in the vain hype that some of the shine would rub off on him. 

Time and again Downing Street and Brown have been talking up the hopes of Obama's London visit on April 2. "He's working hard on that G20 summit" is how it's spun ad nauseam. Even that's falling flat. 

Obama goes with the flow and where the votes are. Who wants to be photographed shaking hands with a loser? 

How demoralising then for Brown to watch his old 'pal' Blair sucking up to Obama as only Blair can. The man who famously doesn't do God, speaking at an annual national prayer breakfast in Washington and to Murdoch's  Sky TV. 

Billed as the "first world leader to meet with Barack Obama", the pair are pictured sitting alongside as "very good friends". After a first, everything else is just so, second place. 

The Orange Party has always believed Blair and Obama are two peas in a pod. For Blair, with his sights on the EU presidency, cosying up to Obama says it all. 

Tellingly and ominously, Bloomberg reports to the world: "Public anger is mounting ... Brown’s confrontation with his party’s base ... Support for Labour is crumbling .... "

“They’ve sold us down the river,” said Charles Hilton, 61, an electrician from Hull in northern England who was out on strike yesterday with local oil-refinery workers. “We’re going to see civil unrest in this country. It’s already started. It will grow unless things are sorted."

Hilton, who calls himself a traditional Labour voter, said he’ll back David Cameron’s opposition Conservative Party in the next election.

Blair strolled to power on the crest of a wave with "Things Can Only Get Better" ringing in everyone ears. 

What a difference a decade makes.