Gordon Brown, World Tour, '09

Like an ageing rock star who has seen better days and hasn’t quite come to terms with the idea that no-one likes them anymore, Gordon Brown has been on a world tour. And, by God, what a tour it has been.

Dissed in the European Parliament. Exposed to casual racism in Brazil. Told he should have saved more in Chile. It is difficult to know how the World Tour could get any worse for Brown, short of someone coming up to him and calling him a cunt to his face*.

Except it will get worse for Brown. Because this tour was about persuading the G20 to back his outrageous plans to end recession by burning money. And other countries seem far less bought into his insane plans. In fact, Brown increasingly resemble a demented old fool, who other world leaders appear to humour but ultimately ignore. And whilst Brown has staked so much on the meeting of the G20, the others in attendance seem to be treating the meeting as something to be endured before they can get back to the real work of governing their respective companies. Brown’s attempts to grandstand on the international stage are about to backfire. Massively.

And the pundits seem to have turned resolutely against him as well. His likely humiliation at the G20 will be like a red rag to a bull. Brown will be torn apart further in the press. He’ll be portrayed as a broken, compromised man with a reputation in tatters. Just as so many commentators in the blogosphere have been saying for years.

They’ll all look for the moment when it went wrong for Brown. Some will say it was the G20, some will point to Hannan’s speech. The truth is that Brown’s administration was fatally compromised much earlier. In fact, it was broken as soon as it began. Brown is the problem. It was always going to end up this way; Brown is a paranoid, emotionally retarded, pig-headed, incompetent oaf of a man. It was always going to end this way, because Brown is not the right person to be PM.

Nu Labour have done a lot to popularise the phrase “not fit for purpose”. And the phrase sums up Gordon Brown perfectly.

*Form an orderly queue behind me if you are interested in doing this.