After his astonishing speech to Citizens UK, Gordon Brown might have hoped to attract at least grudging admiration from some of his Labour foes. If so, he didn’t factor in one Manish Sood, the party’s candidate in North-West Norfolk.
In a last-minute bid for the award for political hyperbole, Sood has described Brown as the “worst prime minister we have had”.
He told the Lynn News:
Immigration has gone up which is creating friction within communities. The country is getting bigger and messier. The role of ministers has gone bureaucratic and the action of ministers has gone downhill — it is corrupt. The loss of social values is the basic problem and this is not what the Labour Party is about.
I believe Gordon Brown has been the worst prime minister we have had in this country. It is a disgrace and he owes an apology to the people and the Queen.
It’s probably best not to devote too much time to what Alastair Campbell accurately described on his blog as the “bizarre ramblings of a candidate in an unwinnable seat”.
But I’m still perplexed by Sood’s insult of choice. Describing Brown as the “worst prime minister” invites us to compare and contrast Brown’s record with that of Anthony Eden and that of Neville Chamberlain. Wouldn’t it have been more cutting and incendiary just to say “worse than Thatcher”?
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