What Does Everyone Think Of Gordon Brown?

I wasn't well pleased, I must tell you, after watching tonight's Dispatches: Gordon Brown: Fit For Office?

Quite apart from the obvious John Reid reference, quite unnecessary in the wake of revelations about Uncle Joe's sexual harassment of Gordon's Treasury Minister Dawn Primarolo, the programme was full of totally fabricated nonsense.

I mean to say, who is going to believe the disaffected political failures who have called Gordon a "control freak", "psychologically flawed" and a "f***ing disaster" as Prime Minister? Even if the comment does come from a serving Cabinet Minister.

The programme did at least give a hint that those expecting a Cabinet appointment who had know Gordon for years found him to be a warm man capable of individual acts of great kindness. But these moments were drowned out by the array of former Ministers, MPs, civil servants and political advisors who reported the next PM as a man who operates through a secretive and very small circle of trusted intimates and advisers and pays no attention whatsoever to anyone else.

The programme gave many examples of how Gordon allegedly snubbed, cut, bullied, ignored and ploughed his own furrow. His character was shown as dominated by a refusal to collaborate with colleagues who expressed even the slightest disagreement, allied to a long-standing vindictiveness against anyone who threaten to stand in his way. Of course you couldn't believe a word of the testament given along these lines by the Peter Mandelson (13-year non-speaking feud), the late Robin Cook (15-year non-speaking feud), the late Mo Mowlam (11-year non-speaking feud) and Alan Milburn (length of non-speaking feud unknown).

Obvious fabrications included "authoritative" accounts of Gordon's behaviour in Government, the sulks and surliness and refusal to co-operate. According to one extremely well-informed insider well-paid liar, he even stormed into No. 10 and hurled obscenities at Tony Blair. Former minister and deeply embittered Catholic Frank Field recalled the aftermath of a Shadow Cabinet meeting: "I was walking down the corridor, Gordon rushed up and got hold of me and yelled, "Why did you disagree with me? I thought you were my friend"." "A sort of coldness entered me," Field said. "What sort of person have we got here?"

The programme concluded: "Gordon Brown is going to be the next Prime Minister. It's important for all of us - except perhaps the Conservative opposition - that he should be a success. But we're taking a giant leap in the dark. Gordon Brown is a brilliant man, capable of great warmth and human decency - but he's also very closed, clannish, suspicious, tormented and very difficult to deal with. The success of his premiership depends on whether, when he attains his lifetime ambition and enters No.10 Downing Street, he can become a changed character."

Typical nonsense from Channel 4. At least one person stood up for him throughout this travesty of broadcasting. And with friends like Margaret Hodge, who needs enemies any other friends?