Sir, I am surprised at the coverage given to Gordon Brown’s low rating as if this were unusual for many PMs and Presidents during their careers. It is surely a common feature of political life. Often the denigrated one is wellregarded by posterity. This is the case for both Clement Attlee and Harry Truman for example.

Attlee’s nadir came in 1947. He could do nothing right. The current joke ran “An empty taxi drew up outside No 10 Downing Street and the Prime Minister got out”.

In his biography of the President, Roy Jenkins records that such were his humiliations and signs of incompetence that a Republican joke of the time (1946) was to say “to err is Truman”.

So all I can offer to our beleaguered leader is “Hang on in there boy; our grandchildren may rate you one of the greatest”.

Eric Allen

Chaldon, Surrey

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