Gordon Brown: Totally Insane or a Conviction Politician?

"Labour is always ready to listen to people's concerns, and take action on them." according to Gordon Brown.

He also said the government had listened to people's demands that police "come down hard" on gangs.

What on earth is this man going on about? Has he lost the plot and does he actually believe that he is in touch with the people or does he actually believe that the people will believe that he is in touch with them. Lets just have a quick look at labour's record on listening to the people.

The first instance I remember being hugely significant was the war on Iraq. Nobody wanted it but Tony and George had to do it because of all the WMD that Saddam was building & hiding which would presumably be used to destroy Israel and the west some day. Then after they invaded and it was discovered that in fact the Iraqis didn't have WMD, we were told that it was all about regime change to rid the oppressed Iraqi people of the evil dictator Saddam. Either way it never occurred to the government that the people, either them or us might not be behind them. In fact as I recall ,there was even resignations from the then government. Still they marched onwards.

I think that there was also a petrol demonstration early on at some point which was pretty much ignored but the next big thing I remember was the European Constitution which we were going to be given a vote on. Good old Tony never had to give it to us because I think the French and/or the Germans turned it down before we even got a look in. Then they changed the name of it from a constitution to a treaty & Gordon himself decided that we no longer needed any input because it wasn't a constitutional issue. Perhaps someone should point out to our unelected PM that an apple is still an apple whether you call it an apple or not.

The government told everyone that dental care would become easier and cheaper. They messed that one up too. The refused to listen to the BDA and their concerns about the new system of charging and now huge numbers of people cannot find an NHS dentist.

The fact is that the list goes on and on. This government does not listen to the people. It never has and the fact is that is has never had to because of the size of its majority in the House that it has enjoyed and exploited for ten years now. If Gordon is serious about keeping his job, he needs to chop his PR machine because they are doing him no favours. They are making him look like a liar or that he has actually lost the plot. He and his party need to realise that although Blair was popular and did a lot for the renaissance of the Labour party, the fact is that they won their huge majority because people were sick to death of the Conservatives. Blair happened to turn up at the right time with a bit of razzle dazzle.

When people began to see through the razzle dazzle however and realised that there really was no substance ot the man, Blair was clever enough to depart. I think that the British people are beginning to expect more from their politicians than PR and marketing and would like to see candidates who could actually govern the country in the right direction, which at this point in time is in any direction away from the direction in which we are headed, thanks to Blair and New Labour.

In a way, I admire Gordon for sticking around, because that could mean that he is in fact a conviction politician and is ready to actually ride out the rough and do what is right for the people, in which case good luck to him. On the other hand it could also mean that he is oblivious to what people actually think and therefore a bad judge of circumstances and fact or even worse a raving loon. Gladly, I do not think that it will take us long to figure it out.