Gordon’s problems have come from trying to be too flash

Jackie Ashley’s column in The Guardian today shows just how downhearted those who yearned for a Brown premiership now are. It is an admirably frank piece. One point in it, though, needs rebutting.

Ashley rather dolefully writes that:   

When one looks at the success and popularity of Boris Johnson in London, it seems obvious that Brownites underestimated the importance of style and swagger, certainly humour, in this celebrity and television-driven age. We thought people might find a non-flashy, dour, rather private man a refreshing change. We were mistaken.

This view that somehow the public are to blame for wanting a celeb-PM doesn’t tally with the facts. The two biggest blows to Brown’s reputation and standing have not come from his personal manner but from the election that never was and the 10p tax debacle. In both cases, the precise problem was that Brown was too flashy, that he put spin before substance.