The Brown stuff

So, Gordon Brown was back in Parliament again yesterday (Tuesday). Making up for lost time, presumably!

Simon Hoggart's sketch suggests that Brown is "out of power but back in touch" and relating to people's lives. Quoting statistics (his usual modus operandi) on matters designed to show his apparent awareness of and compassion for people living in places such as Sierra Leone might have worked well if we didn't already know what really drives him - self-serving ambition, first and foremost.

We have years of rock-solid history that shows almost entirely that his mind works within that one dimension only, and this event shows that he hasn't changed. The subject of International Aid obviously allowed him an opportunity to quote all this stuff (previously obtained by his advisers and others and supplied as briefing, without a doubt) but Brown has no credibility any more and few will be fooled into thinking he actually cares about the people of whom he spoke.

No, Gordon: we all know you far too well by now to be taken in, so you might as well give it up. Your friends in The Guardian might be prepared to give you an easy ride and slant even their sketches to suggest that you aren't really all that bad after all, but it just ain't working!