Richard III Revisited

I don't know what prompted this Steve Bell cartoon of Gordon Brown which appeared in The Guardian recently - although it does capture its subject rather well, I have to say.

Presumably it was an attempt to draw a parallel between the former Labour leader and Richard III of England - whose bones were dug up from under a car park recently, in Leicester - and who also suffered from a 'poor press', as they say. 

But to my mind Gordon Brown got the kind of press he deserved - even people such as Anthony Seldon had a withering assessment of Gordon Brown, describing him in his book, 'Brown At 10' as: "the most damaged personality to have become chancellor or prime minister since World War II".

Now that must hurt - but the real question is whether the assessment is fair or not - and given my knowledge of the TB/GB (Tony Blair/Gordon Brown) years I would say - Yes.

Even Gordon Brown's old colleagues seem to agree these days - with Ed Miliband and Ed Balls queueing up to stab their former comrade in the back - over Labour's decision to abolish the 10p tax rate.