When Gordon Brown declared, at the last PLP meeting, his intention to change and be more collegiate, the redoubtable Fiona McTaggart heckled back, "I don't believe you!" It would not be long before Fi's deep scepticism would be shown as well-founded.
As part of the deal to placate suicidal Labour backbenchers, post-Euro election cataclysm, Brown promised a full inquiry into the Iraq war. His decision to hold the inquiry in secret, indeed the whole scope of the inquiry, was taken without consulting party leaders, senior civil servants, chiefs of staff nor even the chair himself, Sir John Chilcott. Naturally, Brown had to concede and yet again he pointlessly stood up on tip-toe only to be knocked back on his heels.
His lack of confidence is very reminiscent of John Major around 1995 or 6 as his authority dwindled to nothing. By the end, JM was happy to chuck it all in and take his member's seat at the Oval with no more 'bastards' to trouble him. Brown came close to admitting he looked forward to an end to the constant head kicking in his (far too long) interview with Katherine Viner in the Guardian on Saturday.
But in the same interview he revealed, with relish, his none-too-secret plan to sink Cameron and the Tories - by exposing them as the public spending cutters. He thought he could bark away these numbers in his semi-deranged manner and the voters would wise up and like magic share his vision once more. In Brown's twilight political world, certain stark facts can be glossed over. The Treasury's projected figures already show significant cuts are as inevitable as cold weather next winter. Again Brown was forced to back down on this easily avoided error.
Major ended up look increasingly amateurish as his premiership tottered. Brown at present can only aspire to the amateur.
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