"The Big Feartie frae Fife " +

...That is the label Alex Salmond, First Minister of the Scottish Government, has pinned on Gordon Brown for his decision, after weeks of vacillation, not to call a General Election in November. Under the British system Brown had no need to call an election until 2009 but he has invited scorn and ridicule by playing up to the suggestion that he was ready to seek a personal mandate from the British electorate - until he saw the opinion polls which showed Labour's lead having evaporated.



A wise move therefore not to jump over a cliff to your doom when there was no need, many may say, but others would ask why Brown flirted with the cliff edge in the first place..and I would be among them. In the few months he has been Prime Minister, Brown has shown sure-footedness in dealing with Iraq, America, the foot and mouth situation and the terrorist threat. He was beginning to get a reputation as a formidable Prime Minister.

Now he has shown an incredible degree of naivety by hyping up the likelihood of an election only to draw back from the brink at the last minute. The Labour Party may bluff and bluster that it never intended to call an election, that it was all media hype. They may also claim they have forced the Tories to reveal their hand with regard to policies.

But underneath all that, the image that remains is of a man who thought he would win , then decided he might not, and chickened out. This was not one of Gordon Brown's better moments and it will take some time to repair the image of a calm, confident clear minded decision maker, I'm afraid.


+ = 'Big coward from Fife'