On Gordon Brown and the 'Midas touch'

This is really very good indeed - and highlights an important reason why those who believe that Gordon Brown's premiership can yet be salvaged and turned into a success are wrong:

"This myth seems to me to have some interesting parallels with Gordon Brown’s premiership. By becoming prime minister, Gordon Brown achieved his heart’s desire, and everything went really well at first. He stepped out of Tony Blair’s shadow and became number one. Yet now everything is going wrong, and Gordon Brown does not look like he enjoys being a head of government. He does not like going abroad, or PMQs, or defending his subordinates when things go wrong. He seems as if he would be much happier in another role, and I suspect he would trade it all in for an opportunity to become chancellor again; power without the limelight. He has realised that his ‘heart’s desire’ is not that at all: he has the Midas touch."

It's an obvious observation yet so few people make it and still less understand its significance. Gordon Brown reminds me of some teachers I know, of me in previous incarnations: most people don't like their jobs but he fucking hates his. The sense of unease he feels positively exudes from the centre of his being and touches everything he says and everything he does. This is what I think people sense from him and something I think people could be forgiven for not noticing before he became Prime Minister. Who would have thought he'd dislike the job he'd always wanted this much? People who dislike their jobs to this extent are surely unlikely to be successful in them?