It appears that when you're in politics, at any one time you're only a few minutes away from someone having a go at you. I don't mean mouthing 'wanker' while you're on the phone to the President of Burundi, or flushing your head down the bog at dinner. Instead, I mean members of the opposition making you look like a right royal fool in order to undermine your political standing whilst making themselves look like super-cool happening dudes.
You may have noticed the government has taken a bit of a battering of late. With the credit crunch, the various wars we're involved in and the expenses 'row', there's always something going on which the Tories and the Lib Dems can use to say "See, they're rubbish at governing. Put us in charge and you'll get free doughnuts for life".
Now, if Gordon Brown was going round kicking kittens up the arse or shouting "Homosexuals are gay", I could understand the abuse he gets, but the latest attempt to pick on him is a bit lame to say the least.
I'm sure you've seen the story; he hand-wrote a letter of condolence to the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan, but managed to make a right hash of it, making several spelling mistakes and even getting her name wrong. Quite frankly, it's a disgrace, and the mother in question had every right to have a go at him in the popular press as she comes to terms with her terrible loss.
The thing is though, it's got nowt to do with anyone else, but for some reason papers and news outlets have decided it's another stick to beat him with. I'm pretty sure the only 'crime' he's committed is disrespect, but you'd think he'd been putting babies on spikes the way the press are carrying on. It was even breaking news when the mother accepted his apology. I have every sympathy for her and her plight, but can you honestly say, hand on heart, that you give a shit about the ongoing dialogue between them both? He's not the Prime Minister of Spelling, so if he makes a couple of mistakes, by all means roll your eyes, but don't start having a go at him like he's some kind of evil-doer. Let those who he's treated badly sort it out.
I'm no Brown sympathiser and I don't vote, so there's no political agenda here, but I do find it a bit ridiculous the amount of cack he has to put up with because he's in charge. The latest gripe is from these poor buggers who were shipped to Australia against their will decades ago, where they were separated from their siblings and abused and allsorts. It's a harrowing story, not least because it was carried out in living memory, with most of the victims in their 50's and 60's. It seems incredible that a country which sees itself as advanced would treat its people this way, but there you go.
The thing is, Brown is now expected to stand up and say sorry for what a previous government did. Pardon the potential outrage, but why should he? By all means get up and express your disgust at their plight, but in no way was he responsible for it, so he's got no need to apologise. If any of the original decision-makers are still alive, drag them out and hold them to account. I doubt the victims want an apology anyway, as no amount of saying 'Soz' will repair the damage or bring back the years, but even if they did, they wouldn't want it from someone who wasn't reponsible for it. You might as well get Simon Cowell to say sorry for the good it was do.
Besides, he's got enough to apologise for. X-Factor indeed.
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