Surge, What Surge?

Labour supporters seem to be in a bit of a state about Gordon Brown. Polly Toynbee tells him to be bold, Jonathan Freedland says he's in a hole. They're upset because the great Scottish grump who was supposed to save the left from the Blair embarrassment has turned out to be more of the same, but worse. Of course, it takes the British left years to work anything out - they're still not happy with the fall of the Soviet Union and they didn't realise Blair was Thatcher, but much worse, until about 2003. What they haven't yet worked out on this occasion is that the Brown competence claim is a myth. They keep saying, well, he's got a few problems but the big thing is that he's competent. There is no evidence for this. There is, however, plenty of evidence for incompetence - gold sales, wasted NHS money, PFIs, tax credits, uncontrollable spending on and by management consultants and, finally, the absurd non-election mess engineering by the Little Sods by whom he is surrounded. And, speaking of the Little Sods, you may remember Yvette Cooper's cheap con trick at the time of the World Cup. What she did was invent a problem and then announce she had solved it. Well, I have a feeling the Sods - probably Ed Balls, Yvette's husband - have been at it again. Yesterday we were watching with interest and anxiety the news of the great East Anglian surge. Our Norfolk place is near the sea and next to a river. Nothing happened, the river was entirely unmoved. Now did Balls dream up the surge to recreate the great days of the summer when Brown stood, rock-fisted and square-jawed, against floods, terrorists, foot and mouth and all bad things? Was this the surge that never was? Of course, Balls being Balls, it backfired horribly as the East coast was largely unaffected. Perhaps Ed thought nobody in London knew or could understand anybody in Great Yarmouth. This is true but it was only necessary to squeeze their clothing to realise it was completely dry.