Three ministers have today followed Sir Alan Sugar in coming out and supporting Gordon Brown. Their consistent line is that Gordon Brown is a good man, facing difficult problems which are not of his making, but he is the man best placed and with the best knowledge to help put things right.
The problem for these Brown supporters is that they may well be right in their assessment but it is not them that will decide the result of the next general election and those that will decide the result, the electorate, have lost all trust in Gordon Brown.
The evidence from various local by-elections shows that although Labour are having a hard time of it around the country, they do still have a strong core vote and it appears that Labour voters have not all abandoned Labour yet, although they do appear to be abandoning Gordon Brown. However, if Labour say that they are sticking with Gordon Brown its like they are sticking two fingers up to their voters and almost telling them that their opinion does not count. That's why Sir Alan Sugar and the three ministers do not get it.
I am somewhat surprised by Sir Alan Sugar's view of Gordon Brown, and perhaps he has become muddled because he knows Gordon Brown too well.
The problem for these Brown supporters is that they may well be right in their assessment but it is not them that will decide the result of the next general election and those that will decide the result, the electorate, have lost all trust in Gordon Brown.
The evidence from various local by-elections shows that although Labour are having a hard time of it around the country, they do still have a strong core vote and it appears that Labour voters have not all abandoned Labour yet, although they do appear to be abandoning Gordon Brown. However, if Labour say that they are sticking with Gordon Brown its like they are sticking two fingers up to their voters and almost telling them that their opinion does not count. That's why Sir Alan Sugar and the three ministers do not get it.
I am somewhat surprised by Sir Alan Sugar's view of Gordon Brown, and perhaps he has become muddled because he knows Gordon Brown too well.
Friends can often overlook faults and only see the good. But Sir Alan, having been involved heavily in the football industry, should know how similar Gordon Brown's position is to that of a football team who are struggling in the league. It might be that the manager has had a lot of injuries in his team, it might mean that manager has made one or two silly decisions or team selections and it is probably true that the same manager is best placed to dig them out of the hole they are in because he knows his team best. However, would we expect a Chairman of Tottenham Hotspur (the club Sir Alan used to own) stand by a manager in such circumstances ? Probably not. And for one very good reason. Managers in such situations often lose the supporters trust and respect. Sometimes a manager in trouble keeps the supporters on side (as Terry Venables did, but it didn't stop Spurs getting rid of him) , and these are the managers a chairman can keep. But in the same way as a manager "loses that fans", as they say in football, Gordon Brown has lost the electorate.
A change of manager might not keep Labour up, if they were a football team, but they would have a better chance of keeping their fans on side, and keeping the electorate, your members and supporters on side is what politics is all about.
1 comment:
It's a good analogy, not just with football, but between the Labour Party and Tottnum Hotsper Football Club.
Both are hopeless, pathetic and yet delusional, with an obsession with providing British jobs for British people.
Post a Comment