Gordon Brown

It is difficult to judge the effect, if any, on voters’ psyche of Brown’s appearance before Chilcot yesterday. The papers are full of arguments about whether he did, or did not give the Generals what they wanted when it came to money and he was Chancellor. This is a big subject, not at all as played in the media, which is the subject of the next blog.

In the wider sense of a public performance Gordon did a lot better than Tony. Respectful of losses, weighed by enormity of war, fresh with a more convincing rationale for doing it, distant from some of the detail, loyal in support of his chief. There was nothing there to give the Tories an easy goal, nor indeed anything to up Labour’s score.

There was one thing though. Gordon was sober, reflective and sensible. This was in sharp contrast to Tony, who came across as manic, deluded and unhinged. That may prove significant. One more step in the gradual rise from the ashes of Gordon Brown, because his frantic efforts to get rid of Tony look more and more like a campaign of national deliverance.