Is Gordon Brown Autistic?

Well, is he?

Osborne has got himself into trouble at the Tory Party conference for dropping a veiled hint that the drab Brown might be autistic. Needless to say he has denied it, though in fairness he did make an aside about Brown to answer a question about him being autistic.

I'm not going to get into the semantics of who said what when about Brown, Osborne and autism - partly because I don't know, but mainly because I don't care. But I think he might be on to something here. Perhaps Brown is autistic.

Now, whilst I think Brown is an intolerable, incapable wanker who spends his time sulking about the fact that he is not PM, I am not insulting him by speculating about him being autistic. Let's clarify terms - there are very different forms of autism, but Brown does display a lot of the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder. The criteria used to define Apserger's syndrome include problems with social interaction, restricted but highly developed interests and poor communication skills. Those with the syndrome are often seem to be distant, aloof, and are often mistaken for being arrogant. This is not the case at all - people with Asperger's syndrome have a developmental disorder that damages their interaction and relationships with others.

Now, Brown is known as someone who is distant with the people he works with, who struggles to build strong relationships, who has been so interested in politics that it is pretty much all that has driven his life to date. He struggles with the social interaction involved with modern politics, and when he tries to make himself popular and electable he often comes across as awkward and pained. I don't know the man personally, but from where I am sat he checks off a lot of the symptoms/characteristics associated with Asperger's Syndrome.

And actually it shouldn't be a major problem for Brown. If he does have the Syndrome, it would almost be worth telling people about it so they understand why he appears to be so awkward in most social situations. Furthermore, having Asperger's Syndrome is not a crippling disability. Hans Asperger, who first identified the syndrome, called the four children he was observing "his little professors" and there have been many famous, successful people who have had the Syndrome or are suspected of having it, including Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Stanley Kubrick and Gary Numan. It would be argued that the narrow interests of those with the Syndrome can work to the advantage of the sufferer.

The charities that have rushed to condemn Osborne may be missing the point - this could be an opportunity to raise the profile of the condition and fight the prejuidice that people have about autism/Asperger's syndrome. By all means criticise Osborne for using autism to score a cheap political point, but explain why he is being ignorant.

And before anyone who reads The Appalling Strangeness regularly and is concerned by the lack of abuse and swearing in this post, I wanted to end this post by commenting on Nick Hornby's contribution to the debate:

"George Osborne doesn't seem to have noticed that most people over the age of eight no longer use serious and distressing disabilities as a way of taunting people."

Yes they do, they do it all the time. They know it is offensive and they know it is wrong, which is part of the reason why they do it. And if you don't believe me, well, Hornby you are a fucking retard who writes like a spastic (with apologies to retards and spastics everywhere).