Brown Unhappy, But Not a Hedgehog

No surprise that Frank Field sees Brown's future this way - but what struck me was his description of poor Gordie as being 'so unhappy in his own body'. This might seem to be 'personality politics', another bit of character assassination, but I think it's an important point. A leader should seem happy in himself, because one of his/her jobs is to make us feel good about ourselves, or at least no worse. The spectacle of Brown is at best depressing. I'm sure that when he enters the room, it's as if the lights have gone out and it's suddenly Sunday afternoon in the manse - the reverse of political 'charisma'.
The supreme exemplars of the relaxed cheerfulness that makes politicians popular were Reagan and Clinton (Bill)- and Blair, having sat at the feet of Clinton, managed much the same trick. All three were hugely successful electorally. Broon, on the other hand - for all his desperate stick-on smiles - comes across as a soul in torment, his nails chewed to the quick, his briefing papers scrawled over manically. After a while - especially with all the evidence that's piling up now - this begins to look like incompetence, like the man in charge being out of his depth. He's surely done for. As I've said all along, his only hope of being elected was to go for the snap election, before we'd had the chance to get his measure - but he couldn't bring himself to, and now he's doomed. Still, according to Wee Milliband, at least he's not a hedgehog.