I think Gordon Brown is finding out to his cost that being PM isn't as easy as he thought it was going to be

Richard, Bexhill, UK

Pleased to see that you gave Grim Gordon's other Christian Name, James, into the public domain. It may be yet another raw nerve in his psyche. I believe that James becomes corrupted in Scotland to "Wee Jimmy" or "Wee Jummy"; both of whch can be used in a derogatory manner.

Who will be the first to call him "Wee Jummy" in public?

W D Toulman , Walkington East Yorkshire, UK

Yes ,Mr Brown was Chancellor at a time of rising house prices which made a lot of people feel good. He used this time to make grave mistakes to Britain's economy.
He was unable,or unwilling,to see that the housing market balloon could not continue to rise forever,and that apart from the very short term,restrictions on lending and higher interest rates were required.
Blair too seemed blinkered,which did not help.
When one is doing well,it is easy to think the good days will never end.
Brown never had to take hard decisions.
He now has little room for manouvre,and I would think that his small minded way of thinking,obsession with detail,combined with his lack of true abilty and leadership characteristics will harm the UK.
Sad to say this about our leader, but the country deserves better.

nic, royan, france

God help us if there's a real crisis. The man at the top has to be able to lead.

Andy, Brighton, UK

There's nothing complicated about this. Brown has increased the public sector budget grotesquely with no visible improvement in public services. He was incredibly lucky to have expensive north sea oil, cheap chinese imports and a balanced budget from his predecessor. Now watch...

Steve, London,

The 'Golden Summer of Gordon Brown' peaked when large swathes of the UK were under water. Gordon's two left feet take on it was "No one could have forseen this."
Eh. But what about the environmental warnings for the last decade. Why wasn't he 'sussed' then?

Feu vert

Feu Vert, Rochester, Kent

As PM Mr Brown is indeed now hapless and added to the facts emerging, when his luck was in as Chancellor, he is on borrowed time.
We must never forget his bad mistakes with the ill-judged raid on pension schemes at number 1, and the badly judged selling of half of our gold reserves at number 2 - in time history will have a new less reverential view of his achievements.
He should never be PM, he should not have office and the sooner he goes the better. P L E A S E

Brian Butterly, Dorking, UK

For a long time I was under the impression that the reason Blair got the top job rather than Brown was because they agreed that whoever picked up the bill for their famous meal at the Granita Restaurant would have the first go.
Now I realise that it was because he just did not have the right qualities to be a Prime Minister. Add that to the growing realisation that he was a lucky but useless chancellor and his evident Scottishness in undevolved England and there is a strong chance that he may go down in the books as the worst since Jim Callaghan.

Dave, slough,

To S Gleadall

Being slightly pedantic myself, I have to point out that your logic is slightly flawed as you have not picked up on the slight but important difference between winning 50% of the games in a season and having a 50% chance of winning each game.

With the latter it is indeed like tossing a coin as you suggested. However with the former, which is what Mr Finkelstein suggested, it is more like drawing balls out of a bag. If you know that in a season you will win 50% of the matches then each win will correspondingly decrease the probability of the next match being won and conversely for losses.

While what you pointed out is, indeed, a common misconception, it isn't necessarily one that the author made. Sorry again for being pedantic.

David, London,

To S Gleadhall.
What you are saying is true in the example you are taking (tossing a coin). Each toss is independent of any other toss. The same applies to a lottery draw. Thus playing the same combination of numbers for years on end does not increase one's odds of winning.
However, in sport, psychology plays a part. If a team has a winning streak, players might start to feel insecure and this might sew the seeds of a few defeats.
I don't know if this analysis is relevant in the case of our masters in Whitehall though. Since they are control freaks, they would probably want to rig the lottery-drawing machine to achieve the best social outcome, that is nobody wins, except the exchequer (and the odd lucky person). But we are told that this is for the common good, so that all this money can be showered on useless cultural projects. Time for a chage please

Fred H, Luton,

Well done, neither obvious or rubbish.

Jason White, Paris,

Football matches are not like tossing a coin, they are heavily dependent on morale and injuries,

Jack , London,

Could it be - genuine problems notwithstanding - that Gordon Brown's swing in misfortune has simply occurred because the media needed a new story? GB hasn't changed it is true (maybe that is his problem) but the media's portrayal of him has. And Mr Bean? Come on. Since when was Westminster schoolboy humour considered to be wit...?

Michael, London,

Rape is an alegation that is easy to make but difficult to prove. It is easy to make allegations about the profficiency or 'god like status' of anyone, never mind a politician, particularly when it is continually being trumpeted by the media. Now that he is in power, the 'god like staus' of Brown is being put to the test. I'm afraid that on every count he has failed to impress. That most important personal asset for a politician, the ability to absorb and deflect critisim is sadly missing. Blair must be laughing his socks off.

Diddly Do, liverpool,

Sorry to out-pedant S Gleasall, but football games in a league don't equate to coin-tosses: if you've had a run of good results, the chances are you have been playing the teams in the division which are weaker than you. That leaves more of the stronger teams to play in the next few weeks. It still works if you are one of the weakest teams: your players have worked very hard to get the good results and you have a small squad to pick from; they get tired and you start loosing. No coins involved.

Simon, Brussels,

This article is just confirming what most people knew already: changing PM did not change anything that was wrong about the previous 10 years of government.

Nobby Clark, Perth,

Well done Mr Finkelstein, I was at a loss to understand how Broon gained any plaudits for his first weeks in office
Think about it
Terrorist attack looked grave and left it to the security forces.
Floods . It was his meaness with flood defences that caused the problem and he has never visited the victims because he is afraid to show his face
Foot & Mouth Problem caused by more penny pinching and very badly handled causing a second outbreak . Blamed the american company without any evidence and then it was it
discovered it was the fault of the Government's own Lab
He is utterly useless and we will suffer for it

joihn sheppard, Bristol ,

By common consent Gordon Brown has trouble taking decisions. If true, that fact alone suggests he is not cut out to be PM.

Moreover, he does not appear to have a simple philosophy to guide his decisons in the way that Ronald Reagan had a belief in lower taxes and a smaller state.

I suspect someone who spent an hour a day reading the newspapers could give lead the country a better lead than Gordon Brown. Someone who did just that would have dealt with issues like immigration long ago.

By now so much has been tried and so much has failed despite vast expenditure that the government would be inhuman if they didn't feel demoralised.

Thye appear demoralised and they have every reason to be so.

Anthony, London,

Is James really his first name?

If so , then ...Go Jimmy gooooooooooooo
Please Go.

Mike cassidy, oxford, uk

The Press never twigged that Mr Brown was not really a good Chancellor. He was a lucky Chancellor, who was in office during an exceptionally benign period for the world and UK economies and who inherited a substantial budget surplus from his predecessor. Anyone could have been 'competent' in such times - well, not Alistair Darling, obviously, but nearly anyone. Brown looked and sounded good, but he made bad mistakes with the raid on pension schemes, the selling of half of our gold reserves at an undervalue and his mucking up of the system of bank supervision.

Now he's PM. Unfortunately for him and us, the higher the monkey climbs, the more it shows its tail.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Finkelstein shares the common misunderstanding of statistical independence.

A team who win 50% of their games and go on a winning streak are not statistically more likely to start a losing streak. ("The problem is that a cluster of defeats is quite likely to be on the way to even things out.").

If you toss a fair coin 5 times and get heads each time, you are no more likely to get a tail on the 6th throw than on any other throw.

Sorry to be pedantic, but this misconception is always cropping up.

S Gleadall, London,

"It's well known that the national team manager takes a drubbing from the press which often overdoes it...... He may well rebound on public sympathy."

Just as happened for Steve McClaren

Patrick, Sutton, UK

Sympathy for a Pensions Thief, I think not.

Frank Leader, Bournemouth,

Alternatively, Ken, we might bring in Berlusconi.

Faustino, Brisbane, Australia

I note that ex Tory hopeful Mr Portillo has said Labour will still win the next election.This article compares politics with football. It·s well known that the national team manager takes a drubbing from the press which often overdoes it. I think the same could be happening here. Gordon Brown has made mistakes but I think the coverage he is receiving is over the top.He may well rebound on public sympathy.

Ken, Bournemouth, UK