The Macavity theory

Yesterday a friend put an interesting theory to me about the Labour leadership.

I was holding forth about Gordon Brown, opining that he would not voluntarily give up the leadership to help the party. That, I said, is not in his character.

Mmmm, my friend replied. Yet it is in his character to disappear when things get really tough. The Macavity theory is that fighting an election you are bound to lose takes a good deal of courage. It requires you to show up every day and take personal charge.

Wouldn't it be exactly in Mr Brown's character, goes the theory, to disappear just as the election was about to start, when loss was inevitable?

Comments

[Lola]

There is a fallacy in your text. Mr. B is not in reality 'leading' his party now let alone into an election.

[Charles Vintcent]

Failure Brown (as he will be known historically)has been in denial of his lack of popularity and his re-election chances for months. When the Labour party loses tha next general election it will be interesting to see if there is anyone who will be prepared to be seen to be associated with this loser.

[Matt]

What excuse will Brown use? Family?Health?

[Marek]

Who is Macavity and where was he educated?

[Gooey Blob]

I don't think he's a coward as such, he's just very, very cynical. He disappears whenever the proverbial hits the fan because he doesn't want to be associated with the government's failures. However, whenever there is good news he makes sure he gets to announce it.

Seems to me like he's intent on fighting the next election. Let's face it, nobody else would want to lead Labour into certain defeat.

[RW]

Do you mean physically disappear, in best Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin style? Just wade out to sea, metaphorically speaking, and never be seen again?

A consummation devoutly to be wished, but I fear it will not happen. He'd just pop up again somewhere like Reggie, tenaciously clinging to whatever political power, presumably somewhere in the vast EU machine, he could wangle for himself.

[Man in a Shed]

Brown used to disappear to avoid the negative publicity of being associated with events, not through cowardice. Its cynical and unprincipled, but it had a purpose - to fullfil his childhood dream of becoming PM.

What does he have to look forward to after being PM ?

I think your first instinct was right.

[Ian]

Everyone is knccking Gordon Brown now it is popular,but would Cameron be any better?

[sidsid]

Your took the words out of my mouth Lola.
Not only is he not leading, there is nothing to lead.
A friend recently said of the Labour party, "That's not a political party, it's a cake and arse party."

[Praguetory]

This is why I bet at 70 - 1 odds that Cameron would be the only leader left (out of Brown, Cameron & Campbell) come the next election. Brown will bottle it. I reckon he'll throw a sickie.

[Tapestry]

Brown is only an EU-stooge. He drifts off and another media-created blur replaces him. Why waste your thoughts on any of them?

[Serf]

.......Everyone is knocking Gordon Brown now it is popular,but would Cameron be any better?......

What a pathetic question. Beezlebub himself would be better. Its hard to imagine anyone (and certainly not Mr Cameron) being as completely incompetent as Gordon Brown.

[Carl]

So now we know why Gordon Brown never made any supporive comments when the last properly elected PM had problems. It wasn't statesmanship, it was that he was just to scared to put his head above the parapet. He must go, we need a leader with moral courage.

[nigel]

The Editor of Daily Mail can see Cameron for what he is? A shallow PR man that will say and do anything to get power, don't forget the Tories believe they have a god given right to govern, Cameron is typical Tory offering the same failed polices of the 80's and 90's. Cuts, cut, s redistribute to rich, didn’t work then will work now

[Bill Harding]

You're wrong, Gooey Blob. ALL bullies are cowards.

[Graham]

Gordon was controversial as chancellor, he agreed with everyone as long as they agreed with him!
Now we hear today that HE DECIDED to lease planes for the RAF rather than buy them, as requested.
Why spend 500 million when you can spend nearly a billion!
Maybe Gordon didn't realise we were going to fight two wars but he did nothing to stop them either.

The one time that he was decisive, was when stuck a knife into Tony's back. A man you can trust!

[St Jimmy]

Labour Governments always end the same way - with the country mired deep in the (B)rown stuff.

I hope that Cameron has the guts to prescribe this country the medicine it needs. It's not tax cuts (Nigel @ 1440 take note) - it's spending only what we can afford. Dear Prudence - won't you come out to play?

[John Bull]

Gordon Brown is no different to Robert Mugagabe, power at any price. He may not kill his opponents but he cares not a jot for the country, just his own ego, money and power and it is true he is a EU stooge, just as Blair was. Traitors the lot of them.

[Dicken]

Brown is so obviously unsuitable for the role of PM and is unelected. Is our political system so inept that it allows personal preferences to over-ride the best interests of the majority? Surely there is a mechanism to ensure that this incompetence is not allowed to edure longer than necessary to minimise the damage to the nation.

[Neil]

How most of us, including many in the Labour Party, would like to see the Macavity theory come to fruition, only long before the election is due.

[john]

GBrown stated his 'Masterplan To Change The World' Jan07, (search TimesOnLine).

He is just a puppet, who pulls the strings is more interesting. When the MIGS, (not Russian planes but Men In Grey Suits), knock on the door he will move on.

But probably he still has to 1)cause friction with Russia, and we might get some Migs flying over, 2) raise VAT to 20%.

[albert hall]

Don't want Gordon; don't want Cameron; Cleggy? Hmmm. Bring back Tony? Hmmmmm. What about ED Balls? or Ruth Kelly? Or even our Jacqui? Better make up your minds. High unemployment and economic depression is staring Britain in the face.

[Julian]

Looking at the picture you could almost feel sorry for him, but then you remember the financial disaster he has wrought across the nation and its hard working families!

[Alan]

When I asked a friend who is a well respected churchman and pastor to a military organisation in Scotland his opinion of Brown he replied; "I knew him at university "He was a bully then and he's a bully now".....bullies only understand one thing....a bloody nose!!

[Bernard Lawson]

PLEASE, disappear, Mr Brown.

[Mike]

The media kicking of Gordon Brown is due to the exposure of all his stunts, cons and scams that have surfaced from the 10 years he was chancellor. During 11 years in office he has callously and vindictively taxed, stole and generally raided peoples savings, pensions and assets out of spite to fund his crackpot social engineering schemes. It wasn't about re-distributing wealth it was pure jealous envy & hatred at the people who had worked hard and had not been a burden on the state. Just as Mugabe land grabbed from the white efficient farmers in Zimbabwe only to see the bread basket of Africa become a basket case, Brown has done the same to Britain through stealth taxation. With Stalinist type despots in power, its all about state control of the electorate to force them to bend to the will of the dictator in charge and thats exactly what we've seen in both countries. Whilst their countries suffer, both Mugabe & Brown live in a protective cocoon isolated from the very breakdown of their country they caused by their actions. The breakdown in both countries are very similar with only the scale of breakdown being different. Law & Order is a joke in both countries with the guilty getting away with literally murder at times. Zimbabwe is ravaged by AIDS whilst Britain is ravaged by MRSA and other killer infections. Vote rigging, a major problem in Zimbabwe has for the first time now appeared appeared under Labours watch and the cost of goods, food and energy are much higher than the US or Europe. In essence, there is little differance between the two men and what they've done to their countries except their modus operandi. Mugabe is at least transparent as a physical thug and you can see immediatley what he was up to. Brown however is a lot more crafty by using spin, lies & smoking mirrors but none the less, his actions are just like Mugabes in using others to carry out his dict tats.

[Jim Laflin]

The Labour party appeared when the Liberals collapsed.

Could the collapse of the Labour party herald the reawakening if the Lib Dems or perhaps even UKIP.

We live in hope.

[bill rogers]

i have voted labour all my life,but i never ever r4ated mr broon.he was a disaster waiting to happen.who ever thought he would make a good pm?he should have been sacked by blair

[Nick]

This is all getting very personal and vindictive. I'm not adding to that. However, Brown did make appalling errors during his period as chancellor. Who else would sell the nations Gold reserves at the market bottom! I've been saying it for years, and people have been telling me to shut up for years. The only difference now is that the average Joe isn't "making" money and Brown has been elected scapegoat. The whole Labour party is a disgrace, not just Brown. Labour government is authoritarian, centralised and extremely bureaucratic. Browns personal big problem is stupidity, a trait he shares with the majority of of the UK population. Look at them run; like dogs for a bone.
Yet again an accidental period of prosperity (thanks to communist China this time)has been squandered. Marvellous!

[Robert Miller]

A senior figure such as Charles Clarke or Alistair Darling could take over the leadership of the Labour party. They would then call a General Election facing certain defeat but increasing the chances of a Labour win 5 years later.

[tim]

Come on everyone - he's only there for the non-contributory multi-million pension, that comes out of our hard earned money. Is there a time threshold necessary to qualify - that will be a guide to exit time?

[PETER CLOSE]

The guy is in total denial! He's not there when there's trouble because he "honestly" doesn't believe it's his fault and therefore it has nothing to do with him. In his memoirs, after he's lost the next election, it still won't be his fault - it will be because of an unfortunate sequence of events which misled the electorate into voting against him. But at the moment he still believes the electorate will "see through the misinformation" being bandied about by a coalition of Cameronite and Blairite infidels with the subversives of the press.

[D Rowe]

If Gordon Brown does not stand down
soon it will be a case of
"when the last person leaves the country, will he turn the lights out.

[huxley]

Incapability Brown has been the victim of his self created myth collapsing around his ears.

Any decent figures man could have managed the economy during the global economic boom.

[eeldai]

Sarah Palin for PM anyone?????????

[peter]

One post mentions the opinion of David Cameron, from the Daily Mail.I think you will find the editor of the mail is Scottish, and a personal friend of Gordon Brown.If that is the case, there lies your answer

[David Gommo]

Macavity Macavity,was a ginger cat if I recall in a poem, a cat "who, whenever there was trouble Macavity was not there,always had an alibi and plenty to spare" (or words to that effect!)

[Burro]

Go to yesterdays Telegraph.
"Gordon Brown: Living on borrowed time?"

David, Oxford
on September 03, 2008
at 11:32 AM

Gordon is awaiting further instructions from Central Committee. He wont blow his nose without their say so.

[Frank Upton]

If GB is Macavity, Charles Clarke must be Gus the Theatre Cat, the Milibands are Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer and Boris Johnson is, of course, Bustopher Jones.

[johnjo]

'BURRO' is getting close. Mr Brown, along with so many so- called 'powerful' people has no power. Just examine the membership of the 'Bilderberg Group' and one quickly realises that he is a mere puppet. It is the big banking cartel members and financial institutions who are members and who dictate what will happen to us. Inflation, recession and our ruinous economies are not accidents. They are all part of the 'global' agenda and are deliberate. What is the 'Bilderberg Group'? Why are we not told that many of our senior politicians from here and Europe attend the meetings every year in a different country? What do they discuss? Who knows? and why do our newspapers not tell us? very likely because the major proprietors are probably members. I don't believe for one moment that they are a social club and discuss the weather [although they might well discuss global warming and how they can use it to impose even more taxes] I hold no brief for Mr Brown but I think he does as he is told and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few senior Conservatives who will be doing as they are told if and when they get 'power' When you hear the word 'global' and the phrase 'New World Order' shudder - it's part of the agenda.

[Alison Nunes]

All Labour MPs including ex-government ministers should speak up the Government's and Gorden Brown's successes over the years and not be so quick to undermine him.
They want to remember that after they have lost the next election they will all be nowhere except the opposition benches if they are lucky enough to be back there

[Ross]

It is clear to me that politics is a game for the middle aged to practice small talk among one another. It is quite funny that we (mainly rich southerners - no coincidence there) would prefer a leader who would weasel out of everything, literally be another Blair. At least with Gordon Brown he's uncharismatic enough to know when he's lying.

[Roy Immingham]

This seems to be a good time to change his name to Incapability Brown

[Bystander]

"All Labour MPs including ex-government ministers should speak up the Government's and Gorden Brown's successes..." Alison Nunes. Talk about delusional. They can't because there aren't any.

[Paul]

GB and New Labour have self-righteously been playing Ali Baba and Robbin' Hood with the middle classes' income and capital, and deserve to sink into total and indefinite obscurity. Away with these pickpockets and their spendthrift ways.

[Paul]

It’s time for a new political wave in this country, Labour and the Conservative party offer nothing new. It’s time for parties such as UKIP to be given greater credence and the opportunity to prove that our government can be run effectively by those who genuinely want to govern for the benefit of the country, not the individual.

[Jon]

Macavity was from a poem in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, by T. S. Eliot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macavity

[jon]

Brown will not be the only one running away - anyone who's bought a house in the last 3 years at a hugely inflated price, and now faces negative equity will be doing the same!

[tony]

Message for Gordon....
You can fool some of the people some of the time but..........

[tony]

we may not know where McAvity is but we sure as hell know where Gorden has put us.....

[Jane Matthews]

Do you think you could handle being prime minister at a time of economic crisis Mr Finklestein? Or are your talents limited to this lazy type of journalism?

[Daphne Kenward]

Well said MIKE:

Gordon wanted a job he could'nt do.
Governing a country is more than just telling lies. Taxing people to the point that they can't live.
Mr Brown will be gone before Dec 2008.

[Brian Christley. Abergele]

Gordon Brown can’t even get global warming to work properly!

[Maitland, Glasgow]

All this crap about him being a fabulous Chancellor - leaving UK with a national deficit of £581 Billion and about 100 extra taxes? What's so fabulous about that? He was a rubbish Chancellor and an even worse PM. in another country he would be assassinated - and a good thing too - sooner the better. As a fellow Scot I'm ashamed of him.

[RW]

It's no coincidence that this whole issue is arising while the Large Politician Collider (LPC) is being prepared for switch-on at CERN. The LPC will take very large politicians, such as Charles Clarke, and smash them head-on into Brown at energies of 700,000,000,000 megavolts, causing them to vanish into a mini black hole (OK, a super-size black hole in Clarke's case) along with the rest of this useless apology for a pretend Government, hopefully. Macavity the vanishing cat? You ain't seen nothing yet.