Brown’s personality defines the character of his government

David Cameron will re-launch his election campaign with a personal attack on Gordon Brown. Cameron will embark on the straightforward task of proving that the Road Block is not a moderniser – the Prime Minister’s sudden avowed passion for PR is merely a marriage of electoral convenience. Cameron has led the expenses reform debate and will use Brown’s dithering over the latest furore to condemn him as a ‘shameless defender of the old elite’. According to Francis Elliot, Cameron will say:

“There is no chance Gordon Brown will do what is right and put the public interest before his own political interests. He cannot reform the institution because he is the institution: he made it. The character of his Government — secretive, power-hoarding, controlling — is his character.”

I agree and would certainly add ‘incompetent’ to that list of shared attributes. Yet Cameron wastes his zeal on the observant. Brown makes Neville Chamberlain look like the Sun King but ad hominem appeals predominantly to those whose minds are already settled.