According to press reports, Iceland’s president, foreign minister & the governor of the central bank of are on sick leave
Our prime minister, on the other hand, is showing every sign of enjoying himself in the crisis
Of these, I think I find Gordon Brown’s reaction the more disturbing
True, in a crisis you want someone to keep their head, do whatever needs to be done & lead us through to safety. Give us courage. Someone on whose judgement we can rely
Good judgement & downright enjoyment of outright danger do not seem to go together
But then some of our most celebrated, even revered, prime ministers have been very strange characters
William Gladstone, with whom Gordon Brown likes to compare himself as a great chancellor, would, I think, find it impossible to get selected even as a prospective parliamentary candidate these days, though his intellectual abilities were recognised while he was still at school (at Eton)
His reliogisity was a problem. As was his treatment of women – and I am not even taking into account here his nocturnal missions to bring redemption to ladies of the night. His behaviour towards the 2 young women he identified as suitable to be his wife (before he met Catherine Glynne), & later his treatment of his poor sick sister, was abominable
Nevertheless, I will be just as glad as everyone else if Brown pulls off the rescue of the world financial system
But do not expect me to vote for his party at the next election
I suppose I know now how all those people felt who did not vote for Winston Churchill in 1945
