Alan Johnson

There goes our liberty
The rightly respected Henry Porter has set out his thoughts on why in terms of civil liberties we've never had it so bad, see HERE. It was Harold Macmillan who used the phrase “you've never had it so good” in 1957. At that time the UK was still recovering from the effects of WW2. Many people had suffered in the depression of the pre-war years and by the mid-1950s were desperate for a better life. Now 50 years later it is formally recognised that the good years, fought for and worked towards by so many ordinary people, have been replaced with a sustained period of decline of liberty.

Nice curtains !
The mental well being of the Prime Minister (see right) is an interesting subject and crops up in all sorts of odd places. Not only now but for some time there have been mutterings, this has even lead to controversy as to who called Brown "psychologically flawed" first, Tony Blair or Alistair Campbell. But then 'with friends like that', what else can be expected you may say. In the Times Rachel Sylvester writes, principally, about the Nulabour drift to the left and, in doing so, touches not only on the challengers to Brown's authority but, incidentally, their own equanimity too.

One man and his vanity, that's how many people would describe the G20. It was wall-to-wall publicity for Gordon Brown (as a juvenile below right) and this jamboree but not always for the right reasons. The memory of the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 will endure long after even the most nerdy of political junkies has forgotten the substance of the concord that was dished up at the conclusion of the event.

Before anyone had time to catch Globnobtheir breath Brown is back in the news. This time, following the departure of PC Bob Quick for flashing, that is showing off his top secret papers to the Northern Hemisphere, he has picked a fight with Pakistan. Never mind, there was a raid, but well ahead of the planned date, on a number of locations in the UK. Arrests were made and lo, to the astonishment of only the foolish, a link was established between those in custody and Pakistan. Then PM Brown, perhaps rather too gruffly, points out that this happens a lot. You may imagine that the Pakistanis are not best pleased, even though this is true. As Nulabour has been in power for so long, when there's a problem perhaps they could try blaming themselves for once.

So, not too many days ago we have had Brown posturing with the great and the good, or at least the world's richest nations. This is Brown at his best, the sort of thing he does well.