Politics: Brown's slo-mo death scene 
Sadly, the wheels are already coming off. Because a good chunk of the guests are denouncing the stimulus, in no uncertain terms.
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Sunday, 29 March 2009
TAKE your seats, get a year’s supply of popcorn. Because Gordon Brown is about to stage his second slow-motion death scene.
Remember last year, when our PM lurched from mishap to calamity and was written off by his party? Well, he’s about to do a remake.
But Downfall 2009 will be glitzier, with a star-studded cast. Even the Queen has a walk-on role. And it’s all kicking off NOW.
It’s the G20 summit on Thursday — the day that Gordo hopes will portray him as some kind of economic war leader.
He wants the 20 world leaders to claim they’re all agreeing a £1.4 TRILLION stimulus deal — money, of course, already being spent.
It sounds impressive. Especially if Brown can claim (and this is his dream) that Barack Obama is somehow using his ideas.
The Czech premier, currently European Union president, described the idea of a new stimulus as a “road to hell”.
He says he was inspired by the AC/DC song “Highway to Hell”. And France and Germany agree, albeit in different terms.
So the £4 million-an-hour summit is already dead in the water. But Gordon’s tour last week shows us that already.
He wanted to speak to leaders ahead of the summit, to show he’s a statesman. Instead he reprised his Mr Bean comic capers. First he addressed the European Parliament — and was mauled by a young MEP whose speech became a YouTube sensation.
He went to New York and is introduced as the man who “became PM in 2007 — and it’s been downhill ever since.”
Next, Brazil — where he is stood up by Pele and is told by the president that “white, blue-eyed people” caused the recession.
Finally Chile, where the president humiliates him by saying she saved in the good times — unlike Britain, which ramped up debt.
It was a Mexican wave of derision starting in Strasbourg and ending in Santiago. With a reprise at the G20 in London.
But while Brown has been losing his grip, other people have been strengthening theirs. Namely the Chancellor, Alistair Darling.
Against all odds, Darling is becoming the hero of this recession. He’s in the “Highway to Hell” camp, against a new stimulus.
His ally is Mervyn King, the owl-faced Governor of the Bank of England, who went public in his opposition to Brown last week. It was a very British coup. The Governor effectively told MPs: I won’t sit let Gordo saddle the British public with more debt.
And then he went straight to see the Queen, the first time Her Maj has EVER seen a Bank of England governor. In her 57 years, she has only spoken to Prime Ministers.
But this time, she clearly wanted a second opinion. No one knows what King and the Queen said in private.
But the photos of them together did not go down very well with Gordo.
His reaction came just 40 hours later: from a plane over Brazil he announced he’d change royal succession laws. Which she hates.
Her Maj needn’t worry. The election will take place before this is announced. From now on, it will be one disaster after another.
The G20 will “agree” some fluffy nonsense. When Brown can’t get agreement in his own government, what hope of a 20-nation deal?
Next month’s Budget will be an utter disaster, proving the last stimulus has been an abject FAILURE. The June local elections will be even worse for Labour, and probably start speculation over Brown’s future yet again.
Just yesterday, Brown heard the worst news of all. Obama wants to see David Cameron for a full HOUR of talks on Wednesday.
This compares with 65 minutes the President had set aside for 10 Downing Street. And the message it sends out will be all too clear.
From Pele to Obama, the world now regards Gordo as a dead man walking. This time, it really is all over.
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Comment number: 6a00d83451ba0b69e201156e85185e970c
Offensive? Report commentIf you are right about Brown's reaction to the meeting between Her Majesty and Mervyn King, then this man must be dealt with. Soon. He has, quite literally, lost the plot because he is unable to accept that he is a disaster as Prime Minister (as some of us realised he was as chancellor when he destroyed the nation's pension funds). HE MUST GO!
Comment number: 6a00d83451ba0b69e201156f7fd20b970b
Offensive? Report commentIt says all about the ego of the man that he is willing to risk peoples lives by holding the G20 summit in London of all places.
Comment number: 6a00d83451ba0b69e201156e8a46a4970c
Offensive? Report commentIt isn't pleasant watching Gordon Brown being personally humiliated - but it is justified. This man, with his huge ego and delusions about his own abilities, is humiliating the British people on the world stage. His policies have wreaked the UK economy and yet he is continuing to insist that he, The Great Gordo, is the only man who knows how to fix it.
He is politically dead: the polls are very bad but all the talk on the blogosphere indicates that the election result will be far worse than the polls predict.
The man should find some dignity,