What ever happened to the ‘Vision’ that Brown so urgently needed to communicate that he had no choice but to abandon General Election plans?

He never did explain what it was that he so desperately needed the Premiership for in the first place. You spend 10 years plotting and scheming to get the job and you realise, once you’ve got it, you don’t know what to do next? It seems unthinkable but that’s exactly what’s happened.

Brown’s vision these days is ‘fighting the recession’ and ‘cleaning up politics’ – both issues on the agenda due to events out of his control (or the result of his previous ‘efforts’). Hardly the stuff of a legendary ‘vision’ which required another 2 years to explain, or justified the extermination of Blair.

Where’s Brown’s agenda? Where’s Brown’s leadership? The expectation that Brown would explode into the premiership with a host of fantastically original and popular ideas that he’d been dreaming up (and holding back) over the last ten years turned out to be way off the mark. There’s nothing there, just the pure ambition of a man who wanted the prestige of the role for its own sake, to make his mark on history.

Is it any wonder though? Selecting a leader based on who’s ‘turn’ it was, who was most ‘entitled’ to it rather than who was most suitable and qualified sort of sums up entirely what’s wrong with the Labour Party and the way they think. Taking turns rather than using competition, you see? The results can be catastrophic.