Mike Southby

Firstly I’d like to say that I’m not much for politics; sure I watch the news as often as I can and try to keep up on current affairs but when it comes to individual parties, policies or politicians themselves, in my experience they are all as bad as one another.  There are pros and cons for all of them.  Gordon Brown has faced his fair share of criticism since becoming Prime Minister, some justified, some not so.  I think anyone who becomes Prime Minster is open to criticism, whether we like the person or not I think we would all agree that it is a tough job in more ways than one.

My problem with Gordon Brown has nothing to do with politics; it has nothing to do with his parties policies.  My problem is with the way in which he continues to fumble his way through life, seemingly blasé of his responsibilities and the way he should be acting, all the while receiving an extremely large pay check, paid by us the taxpayers.

I was reading through the papers this morning and came across the latest articles, featuring yet more stories documenting his trail of let downs.

The leading story is of a letter which he sent to a mother whose son recently died in Afghanistan.  The conflict requires no introduction; it seems not a day goes by that we do not hear of another tragic loss, the loss of another son, another father or another husband.  War is nasty business, I don’t blame Gordon Brown for us (the British Armed Forces) being in Afghanistan, the whys and what for’s are I think the responsibility of more than one man; though we may not like to admit to the fact, sometimes war in inevitable and necessary to preserve our way of life.  However, Gordon Brown in his position of Prime Minister has a responsibility to represent the government, the country and in a roundabout kind of way us the public in expressing his gratitude and condolences to the family and friends of the fallen.  It comes with the territory as they say and if he cannot be ‘bothered’ to do it properly then it’s time to step down.  As well as wrongly-spelt names, the letter to the dead soldier’s mother contained four other mistakes.  He wrote ‘greatst’ for greatest, ‘condolencs’ for condolences, ‘you’ instead of your and ‘colleagus’ instead of colleagues.  He also spelt security as ‘securiity’.  To show how personal the letter was and how much effort he had put into writing it, he ended the letter with repetition by writing ‘my sincere condolences’ and ‘yours sincerely’.  In total the letter had more than 20 mistakes in it, not bad for a single sheet of paper.  Now I do understand mistakes happen, I often make mistakes when writing letters but I always check back afterwards, especially if the letter is important.  This soldier gave his life serving his country, and this is the best he can do?  I think it’s a disgrace.  Gordon Brown has since phoned and apologised but personally I think he could have done a lot more, perhaps a personal visit to apologise in person; surely that would have been the least he could have done given the circumstances.

Here’s the letter:

I then read about the way in which he laid his reef of poppies during Sunday’s Remembrance Day service.  I have no doubt that he did not mean any offence but yet again, it is another public show of his lacklustre attitude towards his responsibilities.  Unlike every other government representative, even the Queen; after laying his reef he simply stood upright and did not bow his head as a gesture of respect.  I’m sure it was a genuine mistake just as I’m sure personally in his own mind he was reflecting on the sacrifices of those being remembered but he was not just there as an individual, he was there representing us.  He had a responsibility which yet again, he seems to have neglected very publicly.

I go back to my opening statement; my thoughts have nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with government policies on war or any domestic issue.  However I wonder about the suitability of Gordon Brown for the role of Prime Minster, a role which carries so much responsibility not only for our country, but for us as its people.

Gordon, you MUST do better otherwise please, step aside.

Rant over.