Brown On A Wing And A Prayer

Three homes Hoon has joined two homes secretary Smith exposed with their snouts in the trough of the MP's expenses scandal. Brown's G20 summit swindle is being unpicked and unmasked as a con. And his hapless chancellor has admitted he got it wrong about the recession. Brown 'bounced' but now he's fallen flat on his face and hanging on by a wing and a prayer. 

It's starting to look dangerous for a beleaguered Brown as his cunning plans backfire and he faces the wrath of voters. It's all down to trust. Something that is sadly lacking in every twist and turn of the dying days of the now defunct and discredited New Labour brand. 

The Orange Party was among a few brave souls on Thursday/Friday who put their heads above the parapet and slammed Brown's $1 trillion boast as a smoke and mirrors sham. His deceitful G20 promises were exposed as a lie. 

That was reinforced in a devastating demolition job by Peter Oborne which came with a stark warning to the PM that you always get caught out in the end: "Hubris, hoopla and claims that were false, cynical and very, very dangerous".

Today it's the turn of Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times: 'Gordon Brown's Gang pulls $1 trillion con trick'.

Despite all the hype and spin and the combined might of the White House, Downing Street and the BBC, Brown could only manage a pathetic little itsy bitsy 'bounce' - and that was at the expense of the LibDems not the Tories. 

The YouGov poll was the first test of public opinion since the G20 meeting. Public opinion that was blinded by the spin and hype of the news headlines and often fawning coverage, as Brown basked in his artificially created glory. 

The sad old tired Mirror stands alone milking it for all it's worth but all that happened was some Labour voters who protest against the government when in trouble, returned when, thanks to some of the media, Brown and the gang seemed to be doing OK.

A baby Brown 'bounce' but very short-lived. More importantly, despite all the spin, there wasn't a significant bounce at all. Now that does look bad. 

This was the first poll taken after Smith’s two homes expenses racket and her husband’s penchant for taxpayer porn, not forgetting unemployment minister McNulty. 

The Orange Party reckons the disillusionment with the government because of that sleaze would have been much higher and only the media manipulation of the G20 sham pulled it back from the brink. 

Now, to cap it all, another of the government's  greedy ministers has been exposed in a cheap second homes swindle in another nice 'n sleazy Sunday. This time old greybeard Geoff Hoon. 

In what must take the biscuit of bare-faced cheek, Hoon claimed a second home allowance for his Derby home while letting out his London home and, here's the rub, at the same time the transport secretary was living in a taxpayer-funded Whitehall flat which came with his then job of defence secretary. 

You can't make it up. It just all beggars belief. And the only question remaining is how long will the country have to suffer this fag-end of a government? 

It was and always will be the domestic economy stupid, not grandstanding on the world stage, so now all eyes are on the April 22 Budget.  

But chancellor Darling has told the Sunday Times: "You must not build up any false hope." Too right. But it was Darling who built up the false hope in last autumn's pre-budget report, egged on by a deluded Brown who had the audacity to continue the build up and exactly that "false hope" at his G20 save the world summit sham. 

The Orange Party takes one crumb of comfort. Darling has admitted he sees no green shoots and played down the recent Nationwide 'house price recovery' as a blip. More than a blip old chap. That was a priceless piece of shameless Housepriceballs, deliberately talked up on the day of G20. 

Both Brown and Darling are running out of wriggle-room. The April 22 Budget was put back to allow the spin of G20 to take centre stage. But they'll have to face the music sometime. 

The Budget had been billed as a jobs budget. But the cupboard is bare with just a large IOU note inside and the Bank of England boss is breathing down Darling's neck. There'll be no big deal about a New Deal so there will be no real deal. 

It's looking increasingly like the Budget is the last throw of the dice on the pre-election grid and that, like everything else, will turn out to be a damp squib. 

Brown could well feel the hand of history on him. 'Sunny Jim' Callaghan returned from an economic summit to a vote of no confidence in the commons. He lost the vote, his premiership and the trust of country. 

UPDATE 9pm: Putting angry taxpayers firmly in their place, an arrogant Brown says he has more important issues than MPs' expenses to deal with, according to the BBC.