Conceding Defeat

I've had a number of conversations about Gordon Brown with my good friend the Moai. My predictions (such as "he'll be too much of a coward to call a snap election") about that spineless shit have generally been proved to be correct. So here's another one, published to the limited readership of this blog.

Gordon Brown will not be Prime Minister after the next election. Cameron may not get an overall majority, but the Clegg led Lib Dems will run into the waiting arms of Cameron in the event of young Hug A Husky needing to form a coalition. But that is not my prediction - my prediction is about how Brown will behave in the event of losing the election.

Brown has waited his entire adult life to be Prime Minister. He has had to live in the shadow of his much more capable (and calling Blair capable really shows the incompetence of Brown) and charismatic colleague for over a decade, watching that man in the job he feels he is owed. Now he has the job, his arrogance is such that he does not even feel the need to be elected by anyone. Can you imagine how he will feel if he loses the prize he has coveted for so long?

I think he will go into meltdown - suffer a Nixonesque mental collapse. He won't be calling Cameron to concede defeat in the election - a subordinate will do that. He won't be making a speech on election night: a senior Labour minister will make that speech for him. There will be no gracious concession speech, no "when the curtain falls it is time to get off the stage" moment. He will disappear into the woodwork, vanish up to Scotland in a way that will make Ming the Merciful's vanishing act look positively dignified. Grace and dignity will not be seen from Brown after the next election.