The Dignity Test

So Gordon Brown's son has cystic fibrosis.

I may not like the man at all but this is clearly tragic news for him and his family. So no cheap joke, no inappropriate comments. Not this time.

But there is something else I would add. Fraser has a serious disease, one that will affect him and his family deeply. Brown has a choice - what I would call the Dignity Test. Brown can let his son lead as normal life as a boy can when his father is second in line to the New Labour throne and when he has cystic fibrosis. Gordon can let his son live quietly, and support him through his illness. Or he can milk the illness, and fail the Dignity Test. You will know if he goes for the latter - because suddenly he will be talking about how he values the NHS because they looked after his son, about how he knows how other parents with disabled and/or chronically ill children feel, because his son is ill too. And you will see him visiting hospitals with Fraser in tow, an example of how he feels their pain through his off-spring. You might be thinking that no politician would ever stoop so low, but in these post Blair times I am not so sure.

I am hoping Brown passes the Dignity Test, and proves himself to be a better man than currently think he is. Fraser deserves to live life as something other than a political football, a cheap punchline or comment at Prime Minister's Question Time. And our nation's politics deserves better as well. Brown, show us there is some dignity left in British Politics and do right by your son at the same time.