Squatter’s right?
To be fair to Gordon Brown (I know – never thought I’d be writing that), the weekend’s tabloid opprobrium for him staying on as “The Squatter in Number Ten” post-election is not reasonable. It is right and proper that he should stay on there as PM until there is a credible option in place to form a government. What he might be more appropriately criticised for is failing to do the right and graceful thing immediately after the election and declaring that he would stand down as Labour Leader as soon as practicable. Instead, he makes himself look shabby and gives the impression that, in his head and contrary to all evidence, the much vaunted “national interest” is synonymous with him – or if absolutely necessary the Labour Party without him – retaining power. That lack of grace and realism is only to be expected based on his behaviours over the last decade or so. Similarly, the craven asinine pleadings of Party apparatchiks that his failure to do the decent thing (yet again) is a measure of the greatness of the man and of his unimpeachable sense of duty.
