Gordon Brown: The Search For A Legacy

Every Prime Minister, no matter how bad they were in office, ends up with some sort of grudging respect. John Major was an abject failure from the end of 1992 onwards, yet some now speak of his well-meaning nature and point out that he was undermined by a disloyal and self-destructive party. Likewise. Jim Callaghan - surely one of the worst Prime Ministers in living memory - is thought of by some as "Sunny Jim". Failures can achieve some level of success after they stand down from power. As soon as a Prime Minister is no longer a threat, some people start to like them a bit.

It won't be long before some people try to dig through the Brown premiership, looking for the truffles amongst the effluence. But, by God, they are going to have a tough fucking job on their hands. Because, try as I might, I can find nothing good about the time Brown has spent in office. We've seen the "end to Boom and Bust" myth deflated with catastrophic implications for the national economy. We have seen Parliament drown in a tidal wave of sleaze as expenses are exposed. And we have seen Brown drag the country to the point where it is compromised and nearly bankrupt. 

And you can't even look to Brown's personality to find something positive to right about. He is a nasty, vile little man surrounded by nasty, vile little men. He is a bully, an oaf, and is socially incompetent. He is self-serving, paranoid, and afraid of democracy. 

Put simply, there will be nothing positive to write about Gordon Brown on the day he leaves Downing Street. 

Maybe I'm wrong - and if you can think of anything positive that might be pulled from the car crash of his premiership, stick it in the comments section. But when the histories of this era of British Politics are written, they could do far worse than define Gordon Brown using a picture of a particularly vile looking wasting disease. The phrase "Worst Prime Minister Ever" is over-used, but against every available parameter, Gordon Brown must be a contender.