The Vultures Are Circling

You know things are bad when three people (admittedly from roughly the same cabal) take time from their "busy" schedules to tell the papers what a complete freak you are. If so, you know how Gordon Brown is feeling today. Although I'm fairly sure he was feeling pretty bad already. What with being "the worst Prime Minister in living memory" and all.

Cherie Booth (Tony Blair's mouthy wife) lets rip in her hastily released memoirs, describing Brown as "ineffective" and "has expressed her anger and bewilderment at the Labour Party’s slump in the opinion polls." The memoirs were due to be released in October, but I guess the political climate wasn't going to improve - or indeed get better for her - over the next few months, so why wait? Particularly when Rupert Murdoch's News International are paying you a six figure sum.

John Prescott's memoirs - already gaining some infamy for the revelation that he "suffers" from "bulimia" - back the opinion that Prescott's main role was as peace maker between Blair and Brown ("he said that he had brokered 'hundreds' of reconciliation meetings and telephone calls between the Prime Minister and Chancellor") but also show he "urged Mr Brown to resign to the backbenches and suggested Mr Blair sack his then chancellor".

Prescott describes the current Prime Minister in less than flattering terms: "frustrating, annoying, bewildering and prickly. Mr Brown sulked so often during meetings that they had to be abandoned, and, on other occasions he could "go off like a bloody volcano". He continues, showing the nature of Brown & Blair's relationship: "On one occasion, Gordon wouldn’t let Tony see what was in his preparatory budget proposals. He even banned the Treasury from telling him. That was totally against tradition. The Prime Minister is always told in advance."

The third and most entertaining of the now daily attacks on Brown however, comes from 'Lord Cashpoint' himself, Lord Levy, who suggests that Brown should resign! More amusingly Levy - one of the men arrested and interviewed by police over the 'Cash for Honours' row - repeated claims that Mr Brown must have known that Labour was using secret loans to fund the 2005 election campaign.

Brown has said he knew nothing of the loans and his aides said the suggestion was "garbage". And if that is true, perhaps it explains Brown's sudden loss of economic acumen. In his mind he probably thinks the Labour Party's whole election campaign was funded by 11.5p and some chewing gum, yet they never ran out of money, so he thinks the whole country can be funded in a similar manner. He's probably now sat there wondering why there's not another £2billion in used notes being shoved through his letterbox in the dead of night.

(UPDATE: According to Nick Robinson, I missed that Frank Field also gave the Prime Minister a good kicking this morning on Radio 4)

This is not a good time for the Prime Minister. Every television appearance is lampooned, every utterance seemingly contradicted the second it is spoken, and on top of the Blairite attacks mentioned above, there are questions about him being gay. The alleged comments about Brown's sexuality from Peter Mandelson - previously only discussed in places like Guido's comments forums - were mentioned on Rory Bremner's show last night. And I'm not sure if this just shows the homophobia of the press. What I am certain of, however, is that I know several gay men who would do a better job of running the country - and making it look fabulous at the same time - than Brown is currently managing.

We are a divided nation and there's virtually no 'community' left. Labour were supposed to be the champions of the working class. I cannot bring myself to vote Tory, but I am now ashamed I voted Labour in 1997. We need a complete change in this country, and quickly. A revolution, if you will.

I am the Revolution and I'd like my fucking country back.