Brown to the Backbenches

He's out of Downing Street, but he's not leaving Parliament just yet. Oh no, Grim Gordon's going to sit on the backbenches:

"In case anybody was in any doubt because of the announcements that were made this week, I am wanting to do everything I can to work for people here, for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, as your Member of Parliament, and I will do that to the best of my ability for these next few months and years."

Hmmm. Maybe he does just want to be the best damned representative he can for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, but I rather suspect that Brown is deluding himself once again. I think that part of him reckons that at some point in the future, the Labour party is going to call for him. And because he's sat on the backbenches, he will be able to heed their call. Maybe even become leader again. And perhaps - whisper it - Prime Minister again. You know, a bit like Harold Wilson did.

Of course, Brown is no Harold Wilson, and Wilson himself was a Prime Ministerial also-ran if ever there was one. See, Wilson won all bar one of the General Elections he fought, whereas Brown has a 100% failure record when it comes to winning at the polls. Wilson also stayed as Labour leader when he lost in 1970, whereas Brown quit as Labour leader before he got round to resigning as PM. No, there's not going to be a call for Brown to come back off the backbenches. If anything, by staying in Parliament when his career is not only dead, but dead, cremated, and already being forgotten about, Brown will resemble the man Wilson was so good at defeating at the polls - Ted Heath: a foul misanthrope sat on the backbenches, bitter about his ejection from the political limelight and doing his level best to undermine his successors in the role.

Brown should heed the advice of another failed* Prime Minister - John Major:

"When the curtain falls, it is time to get off the stage."

Quite. Accepting it is over and moving on is a dignified thing to do. But it is probably the very definition of pointless to expect Brown to act with dignity now, when he has spent most of his political career being anything other than dignified.

*Major was a failure as Prime Minister, losing to Labour in 1997 in a landslide and managing to wreck the economy in 1992. Of course, Major was still a lot better than Brown, as he won a convincing victory in 1992 and managed to turn the economy round by 1997.