Jon Bright (London, OK): Bit unfair, perhaps. He hasn't lost it yet. But with Cameron polling enough for a 90-seat majority, and gleefully forcing the Lib Dems to pick their side in a hung parliament early, it's certainly not too early to talk about it. Apparently Brown's personal rating has "slumped to minus 26%" - I'm not quite sure how any poll rating can go negative (are new voters are going to migrate to Britain just to vote against him?) but this certainly sounds, well, rubbish.
So - when was it? I'm going for the aftermath of the cancelled election. Not the fact he cancelled it, though I still think that was a blunder, but the way he cancelled it. When Brown first breezed into office, with his big tent and his bounce, it was, I must admit, a mildly inspiring time. He seemed to be reaching out across party politics. To be ditching spin. He seemed to think like a relatively normal person - promising to get rid of the restrictions on protest outside parliament, for example, or reining in the supercasino plans. Quentin Davies defected. Other Tories and Lib Dems promised to work on policy committees. The governance agenda - a look at our archaic voting system, transfers of powers from the executive to parliament. There was, in my opinion, a genuine breath of fresh air. At last a PM who gets it.
Then the election bungle. I still personally feel he should have gone for it. The Tories started polling better through a display of unity and the inheritance tax cut, of course - but I think Brown's numbers would have bounced straight back up again if he had proved himself up for a fight. Instead he backed down, and, crucially, reverted to what everyone was expecting. Is the prime minister seriously saying that polling numbers had no effect on his decision to cancel the election, he was asked? Yes, came the reply. Are we seriously expected to believe that Labour were planning to reform inheritance tax before the Tory announcement? Yes again. Just like that, he was back talking in a way people expect politicians to. Not necessarily or demonstrably 'false', but with this twisting, turning, evasive wordplay that seeks to demonstrate they've never put a foot wrong and everything is going according to plan, which people like to call 'spin'. The breath of fresh air turned stale, the bounce was deflated, the tent collapsed, etc. That's how I felt anyway - what about everyone else?
