There is a clear course of action, a call to duty that the the next Prime Minister should take. That is to stop the war now and stop the next war too. The people are sick and tired of idiots. The people do not need Prime Ministers any more. Give us back our country.
Democracy in UK now!

mike, bangkok, thailand

Dear Matthew,
could you please write about the disgraceful vote in Parliament to excude MPs from the Freedom of Information Act? Which Democratic country in Europe would DARE to even propose such a Bill? What an utter disgrace and Gordon asks us to trust him??? When his collegues vote in favour of a Tory's private bill???
We have been treated like idiots for too long, no wonder so few people vote and so many emigrate.

Alice, Stevenage,

May I suggest to James Gallacher that he tries to understand that there is a separation between criticism of an individual and criticism of a state of affairs. He seems to be of the opinion that Oborne's/Parris's message is derived from the thought that Brown is a nasty piece of work. He needs to understand that this is indisputably not the case, and that if they believed Brown offered positively to this country they would say so, notwithstanding any displeasure they may feel personally towards him.

Many like Mr Gallacher will misinterpret comment as personal rather than situational unless they appreciate that there are definitely "horses for courses", that it's not particularly difficult to identify and classify them, that criticism such as Oborne's and Parris's is of the forthcoming process, not of the person, and that if we really wish for the best society possible we need to select and empower the people most likely to lead us there. We have no need to rely on trial and error.

Simon Stephenson, Windermere, UK

Matthew,

Cast your mind back for a moment to that "glorious Spring morning" in May 1997. Be honest, didn't you believe (just a little) in the accepted wisdom that here was the leader our country needed - the right person at the right time?

Well, didn't we get that one wrong!

None of us can know what we are (or are not) capable of until truly tested.

Why not give him the benefit of your doubt and wait to see how he meets the challenges of office. Join up!

Tony Hooper, Bridgend,

Well what a surprise, Matthew Parris writing a negative article this time about Gordon Brown. We will only get a positive spin when the Tories have been elected and then I can’t wait to read all the fawning articles. At least with Simon Jenkins we get objectivity. When is Matthew Parris going to write about the towering intellect of David Cameron?

Alan Lewis, Bangkok, Thailand

Well argued Matthew. It has been common in journalism and other broadcast media to portray the Chancellor either as a towering political figure or the Machievellian centrepiece of a movement to unseat the PM. If either were the case he would have been PM years ago had he but had the courage of his overstated convictions. I am afraid, however, that the Brown Moral Compass has always appeared to point Due Coward - he really has died a thousand times in the last 13 years.

Bruce, UK, Malvern,

Living abroad, mainly due to to Gordon Brown having destroyed my pension and not able to afford to live in my country of birth I see things from afar this way.
The UK is breaking up. Gordon is very divisive because he seems to hate the English.
He sold of our gold at lower basement rates and the people are in debt and angry.
Does not look to good..very sadly.

John Albert, Lisbon, Portugal

On most of your analysis you are right. But that analysis is of Brown the person not Brown the intellectual. One area where you are wrong is there there is a very big question - how does post-industrial Britain survive as an economy and a society in a globalised world?
Intellectually Brown is as lacking as Sarkozy in this area. he can only repeat the Reagan/Thatcher mantra of low taxes on the rich creating wealth for all. A mantra we now know to be very flawed.
A society where respect is measured in the colour of one's credit card and the associated credit limit. The response to lack of respect being violence in many forms.
Rather than being foolish to underestimate or even overestimate Brown it is crass folly to expect anything of him.

eddie reader, birmingham, uk

This is all very clever Matthew, until we note that for the past two years you have been urging Brown to seize the crown at every moment. .
Unless this painstaking analysis burst forth in just the last seven days (hmm) what does that say about you, and your friendly non partisan advice?

kevin molloy, liverpool,

"he comes to office when there is no big, obvious thing that any prime minister is called on to do. Destiny has not supplied him with a simple challenge."

Get out of Iraq; get the US out of Iraq. Settle our relations with the Islamic world, which Blair has launched on a confrontational path, out of his Christian convictions.

If Brown could do that he would be thanked for at least a century.

Alex, Paris, France

It is a very common problem with large organisations, political parties included, that the primary skills needed to get you to the top are not the primary skills needed once you get there. It is a rare leader who is as gifted in the former as the latter.

Tim, Chester,

I quite sympathise with the posits of the article. Mr Brown is one of the most dubious Prime Ministers to assume tenure in the UK. The farcical allegations around him render the UK's political climate somewhat implausible as an administration.

L Georgiev, London,

I think that Mr Brown knows the money he lavished on health should have gone into education. He also knows that the public will choose spending over investment every time.
On pensions, he adopted exactly the right policy by taking money out of funds. Otherwise they would have distorted the economy as too much entitement built up with too few workers to honour it. However the question is, does he realise that? I genuinely don't know.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

You really do hate Brown, so at least you are consistant. You never thought he would become PM and you were wrong. Why dont you relax. Brown is a fascinating character. Yes he is dour, single minded, uncomfortable with himself, rude, etc but despite this he has got to the top. That takes some doing. Lets watch him and give him a chance, According to you he will be a spectacular disaster. It will really irritate you if he succeeds. And I think he will since he has the huge incentive not to be seen as a dog end of the Blair years. His single minded determination will be to make all of these years seen as the "Brown" years.

JAMES GALLAGHER, London, UK

So Matthew, if Gordon wins the next general election, as I think he most probably will, does it mean all your fine words have been expended in vain? We shall just have to wait and see.

K Philips, London,

If that is so UK is in a most unfortunate/precarious situation !
Health, education and making the streets safe etc etc need most urgent attention--
wait till the economy falters given the massive borrowings by the public
amongst others.

ian, singapore, singapore

I endorse Chudi Okoye's comment. Aside from the fact that I'm in agreement with most of what is written here, just compare the quality of Matthew Parris's articles with Peter Riddell's column over the years. But there is no comparison. There is an intellectual honesty in Parris's articles which is quite absent in Riddell's shallow and always predictable outpouring. His article yesterday (18th May) was such. A statement of the boringly obvious with a spoonful of "syrup of sycophancy" stirred into the final paragraph. If Brown turns out to be a half-decent PM I'm sure Parris would be prepared to state that he had been wrong. Riddell will never have the integrity to admit even to himself that Blair has been a prime ministerial disaster and upon the announcement of his resignation was intellectually "rigorous" enough to trot out the list of Blair's achievements almost word for word as put out by Downing Street.

Steve, Sutton Coldfield,

Really, have you nothing constructive to say other than to throw bile. Is this what we can expect from angry threatened conservatives?

Luckly, joe public see through this sort of character onslaught. It just makes the Tories look petulant and cruel. Plus it means people will be pleasantly surprised when they do get to know Brown.

Shame on you and shame on your party. Surely you have something more to say on where you disagree re ideas and policy. This is desperate stuff.

Debbie, Hove, UK

Remember in the first few years, Brown kept trumpeting how he has escaped the Tories' boom and bust economics, when in fact such boom and bust events are global phenomenons. Additionally, the fact the UK has been so strong is due to the fact we stayed out of the Euro....which was of course due to the Tories.

When interest rates and inflation are low, Brown takes the credit. When it goes higher, the BoE has to write a letter to explain the reasons to Brown.....talk about a ducking of responsibility.

I seriously cannot believe how people cannot see through the chancer that Brown is. He is not a strong chancellor. He just happened to be riding the crest of an economic wave that Britain is experiencing.

What about the dotcom crash? Has anyone thought maybe this was triggered in part by the 3G auctions that Brown initiated? Coincidence that it happened after all the billions paid out by the telecoms cos who didn't want to get left behind?

Dave, Edinburgh,

The media is the most powerful political party in this country. It tells us who to beleive in. It attempts to tell when we should stretch our emotions, all in the cause of a sensational story of course. It attempts to destroy anyone who happens to get in the way of it's own deeply conservative elitist views. IT JUST LACKS A MANDATE.

Jane, CUMBRIA, UK

The media is the most powerful political party in this country. It tells us who to beleive in. It attempts to tell when we should stretch our emotions, all in the cause of a sensational story of course. It attempts to destroy anyone who happens to get in the way of it's own deeply conservative elitist views. IT JUST LACKS A MANDATE.

Jane, CUMBRIA, UK

How can one have any confidence in a Prime Minister who as Chancellor sold off the country's gold reserve at a rock-bottom price in return for worthless Euros? The man's a fool as well as stubborn. He will be a disaster as PM and probably (hurrah) bring down the Labour Party with him.

Adrian Gilbert, Tonbridge, England.

Nice analysis, and I'd like to ask where Brown's supposed brilliance is to be seen in any of the major policies he initiated? So far as I can judge them, every single one, with the exception of Bank of England autonomy, has been an absolute disaster. They have caused tens hundreds of billions of pounds of waste and a huge amount of suffering among all sections of the population. So we are going to have as prime minister a person with a seriously flawed personality who has not a clue about how to make policy work effectively. Where is all the genius we are told is just waiting to be unleashed? And why does his alleged genius have to wait until it is in No 10 before it can spring into operation? Is it not a quality of genius that it is irrepressible?

We should all dust off our old crash helmets because the next few years are going to be terrible!

Douglas McCabe, Angus,

Matthew Parris may well be right about Gordon Brown. The problem for me is that he was so wrong about Saddam Hussein when so many of us, the silent majority, were right.

To speak out against Tony Blair and just compare what we saw - run-down industrial sites, UN inspectors keeping up the pressure in a satisfactory manner, absolutely no evidence of terrifying weaponry (I ask you! Articulated lorries masquerading as mobile laboratories? Too much, James Bond!) took lateral thinking and imagination, not to mention courage. And there were thousands of us (but few with access, unfortunately, to the public mind).

To regain credibility, Matthew Parris cannot just be arguably the finest columnist in the British press. He must also get it right before the proof is undeniable.

Roderick Low, Creysse, France

You are quite right, Matthew, but beside the real point. As well as being a bit wonky on the top deck, Brown is a failure. Look at the history.

All the boasts (best Chancellor ever, booming economy...) ring true if you're a billionaire, but if you're old, poor, or just on an average provincial salary you wonder which economy the man is talking about. People like us are struggling. This economy, not the fantasy in Brown's head, is the real one.

So much for a Chancellor's core function. But Brown has done more. He has controlled cash flow and set priorities in almost every domestic department. The results? The hospitals are pigsties, education gets steadily worse, transport is a catastrophe and the police cannot keep control of our streets.

Underestimate the fellow? It's not possible.

Michael Bruce, Selby, Yorkshire

Gordon Brown's greatest crime has been to raises taxes by an unprecedented additional 8% of GDP with so little to show for it in the end. Much of the spending was undertaken with remarkable inattention to its actual impact, e.g. in education, the NHS and of course the criminally maladroit tax credits. The introduction of insanely naive performance monitoring systems by the Treasury reduced the effectiveness of increased spending even further. All of this was the product of Brown's genius. Thank god, he is now leader of the Labour Party since he is the person likeliest to ensure their defeat at the next general elections.

Dr. Gautam Sen, Stanmore, UK

Once again Matthew Parris bits the nail on the head - and without even mentioning 1. yesterday's disgraceful decision that MPs are to be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act; 2. his acquiescence in support the revision of the MPs pension scheme as soon as he took office; 3. his subsequent amendment to the law to exempt himself and the prime minister from the limits in the size of their 'pension pot' that applies to all other MPs, and his refusal to wear a tuxedo for his annual Guildhall speech.

Peter, Liverpool,

This article is 'Spot On' and I just hope and prey that the electorate also see through Mr Brown's persona. One only has to look at his handling of the Pension tax credits farce and the selling off of the nations Gold reserves at rock bottom prices against the advice of all the 'Experts' at his disposal to see what we are dealing with here.

I totally agree that Mr Brown is not the right sort of person to choose as our leader. When and if he is faced with a 'Hard' decision as indeed he will be as our leader you can be assured he will only take on board others opinions so as to spread any blame should it all go pear shaped. I can also see him still retaining a strong influence in all matters of taxation despite the fact that he has officially left the post of chancellor.

I just can't wait till we have a general election again where his reign will soon be confined to history, we have had enough of control freaks and want a change asap.

MikeL, Manchester, UK

Very well written article. Very well, indeed. It's also a masterclass in the art of spin, isn't it?

The proof is in the eating, as the saying goes, for this particular porridge.

We shall see. Let's wait.

John, London, UK

Brown has never appeared on programmes like Question Time, for example, to face interrogation by an audience, or to take part in open debate with other politicians. Cowardice seems to be his main trait, although Matthew was too kind to say so quite so directly.

Brown has a closed mind, and his achievements as Chancellor have been grossly over-stated.

Bill Rees, Manchester,

Contrary to general opinion Common Sense, which is the only real attribute needed in governing well, is inversely proportional to Intellectual Ability.

Minie Ovens, Los Angeles,

Matthew Parris might like to consider a further point :

14. Brown is a bore, and his speeches are only listened to attentively when he is announcing tax xhanges.

George Wedd, High Littleton, , Somerset, UK

If i were Gordon Brown reading this, having the nature you describe, I would already be feverishly plotting your journalistic demise. With my coterie, energetically no doubt, being "on side".
Are not Iraq, Afganistan, and the Israeli/Palestine conflicts big enough problems to illuminate his Prime Ministerial skills? If he has any that can balance out the crippling shortcomings you describe.

Tom O'Farrell, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

Oh no! What are we in for? We've only gone and made the Finannce Director into the Chief Executive. No self respecting bsinessw ould ever do this - why? Because accountants don't make good leaders, that why!

Charles Barker, Devizes, England

Given your usually perceptive and good humoured columns, I am disappointed to read this limp wristed character assassination. Gordon Brown as PM is now a done deal. There is no point pre-judging him. You will more than likely be proved wrong. Who would have picked Margaret Thatcher for a great PM berfore her appoitnment based on her personality, which in many ways seems to resemble Brown's.

Oz, St Albans,

Hang on a minute, the current PM is on his way out because the country and his party have had enough of him so the last thing we let him do is pick his successor?
If you remember the song Ugly Duckling hiding himself away until......................... unfortunately in Gordon's case after all his time in the clump of weeds...............he's still a duck.

Ken Wyatt, Todmorden, UK

and the problem is that Brown actually believes that he has great intellect and bestrides the universe - or maybe not. Neither condition fills me with belief that the man is capable of inspiring leadership.

enthusiast, Pembrokeshire,

I have performed very well heading a project under New Labour; I won awards and gained both UK and foreign praise. But I now work mostly overseas and away from the UK. Why? Because I saw through very quickly the sham that has been the past ten years. Your observations of Brown are spot on: he is from tha cabal that is most odious. I fear the next two years because for all of Bair's faults, he is a decent guy and warm. Brown is not.

Bob Macdonald, London,

Is there a suitable cathedral door somewhere that Mr Parris's thirteen accusations could be nailed to?

The one point I would disagree with is saying that destiny has not provided him with a simple challenge. What about restoring to the British people their freedom? How's that for starters?

Bob Doney, Camberley,

Wow, Matthew Parris: what a writeup. I moved to the US from the UK six months ago, and I have been bragging to colleagues here how good the leading UK columnists are (Parris, Simon Jenkins...). You have made my point with this article.

Oh, I don't agree with you in every material particular about Mr Brown's failings. And I detect a subtle patriotic tease: you want Mr Brown to prove you wrong, which would be good for my old country.

But good on you for a refreshing and daring writeup!

Chudi Okoye, San Diego, California, US

It is at last comforting to find a journalist who concurs with my own views on Brown. It is hard to put into words what a devious, cowardly and politically machiavellian character he is, but one thing's for sure, if people are expecting him to introduce more fairness,integrity, honesty and openness into politics then they are looking in the wrong place

Bryan, Totland , UK

finaly someone has said it .He is no giant no colossus head and shoulders above the herd.He is a flawed personality scared of change and promoted far above his ability.If he is the best labour have then they have my pity or does nobody else want the job?

mitch, wolverhampton, england

Matthew ... EXCELLENT article! Brown does indeed lack courage and imagination!

Virtually everything that comes out of his mouth is a badly thought out platitude! His spin gives you hope for a couple of minutes until you realise that it was just verbal confusion!

RyanBerks, Bracknell,

He has one major issue to deal with and that is IRAQ. How well he deals wth that issue will determine if you are correct!

hana, kuala lumpur, malaysia

In response to Judy from Liverpool, My hands up to all the statements you made a comment on. But, I believe that Brown is the worst chancellor we have had in memory. He has financially screwed the UK. We are no longer the 4th richest nation, but most probably the 4th poorest after Brown's shenanigans!!

Louis, Liverpool,

Anybody but the dreadful Tories, that's what I say.

Stan, Stanmore,

I can’t think why all you journalists are looking for a Great Leader with Big Vision. I submit neither this country nor the world needs someone like that, who is anyway largely the product of vicious circumstances. They inevitably cause misery for large numbers of people, eg your examples of great leaders, without doing anything that couldn’t have been done in a more reasonable way. They are altogether inconsistent with congenial life and continuity, and if they aren’t responsible for considerable chaos, they are usually associated with it.
Gordon Brown has been Chancellor all the time Labour has been in power, and so what you say about Brown relates to him in this position. Is therefore, your estimation a function of Brown’s personality or the affect of the office he has held? It is exceptional for anyone to have held this office for so long, or for the economy to have behaved as it has for so long. Perhaps, therefore, there is a problem in detaching Brown from the chancellorship, and finding a suitable replacement, in terms of the projection or revelation of personality.

Henry Percy, London, UK

Excellent and original piece, slicing through the monotonous 'journalese' of other columnists. Even Oborne in his (very entertaining) documentary felt he kept having to underline how 'politically brilliant' the Chancellor is.

Adrian, London,

The real genius of the man is that he has managed to get away with doing virtually nothing for anyone but the rich in Britain and taken millions from pensioners in the process. Some areas of the media are still applauding the man as a national hero and it makes me wonder how much these dimwits take in. Hands up if you're not in debt, hands up if you have a home that you own, hands up if your children aren't in thousands of pounds worth of debt with an almost entirely worthless degree, hands up if your kids have a job at all and on and on and on. Come on now, where are all these hands apart from in the South East? Gordon Brown's offerings so far have been pointless, ineffectual, confusing and damaging to the individual as well as society. In today's Britain, it is the survival of the fittest more than it has ever been before. There is becoming less and less need for Government or the state as more and more people are being forced to operate outside of it, just to survive.

Judy , Liverpool, england

I hope I'm wrong for the sake of the country but I do fear that Gordon Brown is going to be a disastrous prime minister. And I would love those who so strongly believe in him to explain why. He has effectively been prime minister to Blair's President these last ten years. What do they think he is now going to do that he hasn't had the opportunity to do before?

One only has to look at Brown's budget speeches to see his personality revealed. His speeches are long on bluster but short on inconvenient detail he would rather we found out about once he is well out of the way. He speeds up those passages he's less proud of and slows down when he is announcing something good. He announces then reannounces. His budgets are clever and politically astute but are usually revealed to be a good deal less generous, revolutionary and prudent than he has told us they are.

If we have a crisis or national tragedy how will GB cope? Will he run away? Will he take advice? Can he be diplomatic?

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

All probably true, but beside the real point. The fact is that as well as being a bit odd in the top deck, Brown is a failure.

The boasts (most successful chancellor, booming economy) ring true if you are a billionaire or run a huge multinational. If you run a small business, are on a pension, work for the minimum wage or indeed for a normal provincial salary, you ask, which economy are we talking about?

So much for a chancellor's core function. But Brown has done much more these ten years past. He has controlled the cashflow and has interfered with almost every sector of domestic policy. The result? Education is ever more of a mess. The hospitals are pigsties. The police are ineffective to the point where areas of our towns and cities are out of control. Transport is another disaster.

Underestimate the fellow? Impossible.

Michael Bruce, Selby, Yorkshire

Let's wait and see, shall we? This is a well-written attack on Brown - a rhetorically brilliant attack on his inability to use rhetoric persuasively. But I'm not sure it quite makes sense. I don't think you can attack Brown as "the most spun politician of our era" while also using an analysis of his interview technique to make judgements about his personality. If he's spinning in these interviews - i.e. pretending to be something that he's not - then it's hardly fair to use these interviews as evidence of what he is.

Attack his record, by all means. There's plenty to criticise. But my hunch is that one can be sceptical of Mr Parris's "my hunches", "I thinks" and "one can concludes". Mr Parris's virtuosity does not betoken insight; his eloquence does not betoken truth. Perhaps we should wait and see what Brown does as Prime Minister - perhaps he'll betoken some interesting policies?

Nick, London,

Increasing Tax, failure to reform, the elderly and vulnerable pay for Brown's spin. When a man's potential pension has been shrunk by 78% and a woman's by 75% over the course of Brown's alleged control of the economy, listing failure exceeds the list of success in a benign world economy. Roll on his coronation!

Danny, Manchester, UK

Brown says he wants a "more open government". The very next day MPs vote to exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information law- without a murmer from Brown. Unbelieveably shabby, but utterly consistent with the man's nasty secretive little ways.

David Rochester, Liverpool, UK

Gordon Brown is a set piece performer. I have never seen him in an adversorial situation. He gives presentations, not argument.
The first real test will come at his first PMQ's, at which, I am sure, all his enemies will attend.
Having said that, as someone who has spent 30 years in senior management, I have to admit that 'the job often makes the man'. I have seen so many unlikely candidates blossom when given power, but I have also seen many who looked a perfect shoe-in for the job be a disaster.
We shall have to wait and see.

Dudley Holley, Thorpe BAy, UK

Another Saturday, another load of rubbish from MP. He appears to have lost all sense of balance.

Phil, Waltham Abbey,

Mr Parris why would anybody think MR BROWN will be
any different as prime minister nobody in government
is talking about the big issues the people want putting
right like immigration and fairer taxes and less crime
just to name a few, they act like ostriches its like DONT
MENTION THE BAD BITS get real hes not the man for
the job . LETS PUT THE GREAT BACK IN BRITAIN.

george william taylor, HULL, UK

Mr Parris, you exaggerate Brown's good points.

Ian, Exeter, UK