Will Brown’s next interrogators be the public?

So what next for the new, more human, Gordon Brown (as seen on TV)?  Well, according to today’s Times, there are some ministers who want him to take the show on the road.  The idea is to let voters tackle Brown directly – but about the topics Piers Morgan kinda skipped over: the economy, MPs’ expenses, Afghanistan, and all the other big stuff.  And the hope, in turn, is that this “masochism strategy” will make the public respect Brown more.

Would it work?  Well, just like the Morgan interview and its wider impact, that’s something which is difficult to pre-judge from the confines of Westminster.  Of course, dealing with anger about job losses and troop deaths is in a whole different ballpark to a televised conversation with a Designated Prime Ministerial Friend – especially when there’ll be more bad news between now and the election.  But you imagine Downing St hopes that the Brown-as-Human onslaught of the past few weeks will take some of the edge off that.