Thursday 29 November 2007

Gordon Bean

There comes a time in the lifespan of a reputation where you must consider cutting your losses. PR gurus wax lyrical about their Phoenix-building expertise and how even the most damaged of reputations can be revived with a bit of effort. But even those in the lofty heights of PR land must be wringing their hands about poor old Gordon Brown.

It must have come as a bit of a shock to the House yesterday when Vince Cable compared Gordon Brown (the Prime Minister of one of the richest countries in the Western world, don't forget) to Mr Bean. More particularly, he noted Brown's "remarkable transformation in the past few weeks from Stalin to Mr Bean". Now, apart from that being a bit of a blunt insult, it does reflect a more serious undercurrent that Brown is a bumbling and inept fool, a view being held by an increasing proportion of the population.

Is this a lost cause ? I think not. Sure, he's had a bit of a rough ride of late but in the grand scheme of things its no worse than some of the japes that Blair was involved in, and certainly hasn't cost the country anywhere near as much as the whole Iraq debacle. Furthermore, people - journalists especially - have very short memories, conveniently forgetting how strongly Brown managed the economy for quite a number of years.

If I was Johnny Spin in charge of Brown's reputation, I'd be doing everything I can to build up his profile in the areas in which he is unquestionably strong, and let the tabloids do their short-term thing coming up with new and innovative Bean-esque headlines. There'll soon be something else to feed their vitriol allowing Brown to get on with the job. Just ask Steve Mclaren....

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