Erm, but he is bonkers isn’t he?
Blair’s lot was the first to spin it…

I’m kind of with you there, cjcjc. If Brown is going round telling everybody he’s going to win the next election (as Guido reports), then he’s definitely out to lunch. Like – ALL the way out.

Poor bastard.

Maybe it would be kinder now to put him down, like a dog?

Apologies if I posted this gem twice – browser is faffing about, etc.

I think you should consider the evidence. It points firmly in the bonkers direction. He seems either to have Asperger’s or a personality disorder / sociopathy.

… on the other hand, it could be a lot worse, so maybe we should try and look on the bright side:

Didn’t one of Hirohito’s relatives think he was a dog, and run about the palace barking & spraying lampstands, etc? I also recall reading that Caligua was so far off the wall that he appointed his racehorse as counsel. Henry VIII was easier to read, in my view. He just thought he was Jesus Christ.

Maybe Gordon isn’t so bad after all.

Etc.

He seems either to have Asperger’s or a personality disorder / sociopathy.

Oh really. On evidence, it doesn’t seem very different to the Tory party delusion that somehow they are now the party for poor people. And they believe that rubbish too. Or ather, they expect that by writing it in the Guardian we’ll believe it.

Oh and here’s Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome arguing that what the world really needs, in order to be safe, is a ‘tough cop’ like George Bush!

So… who’s the delusional one again?

‘On evidence, it doesn’t seem very different to the Tory party delusion that somehow they are now the party for poor people.’

Yep, well, fair point. They’re all as crazy as each other.

“He seems either to have Asperger’s or a personality disorder / sociopathy.”

If he does, then apparently around half of the population must have, because Brown is no more strange or weird than any of them. Incidentally, and I’m not being politically correct here, having Asperger’s or a personality disorder does not make you “bonkers”, as you so delicately put it.

The whole “Brown is bonkers / not normal” thing is designed to attack on two fronts; firstly, because just look at how wonderfully normal the Conservatives – there’s only, err, 15 Old Etonians on the front bench, which is wonderfully representative of the country at large. Secondly, it’s meant to piss off the liberals, because the moment anyone calls them out on this gutter-sniping they revert to saying, “Oh, it’s only a joke, humourless lefties strike again”. If Brown isn’t mad, then he’s a one-eyed social disaster zone, or if someone’s being especially tasteless, he’s Cyclops.

The thing that annoys me more than anything about this is that it’s meant to suggest just how wonderfully brilliant and normal both Blair and Cameron were. You know, the mass murdering, sky fairy-believing lunatic we can never be too glad to have got rid of. And just who does Cameron base his whole act on, remind me? Oh yes.

Sunny: I don’t know, who is the delusional one? I don’t remember discussing anyone with a delusion. You have mentioned Tim Montgomerie and George Bush, perhaps implying that they are delusional. But I think it is unlikely that either of them will be in the next Conservative government.

If you want to look at some evidence, just look up Asperger’s on Wikipedia and consider the prime minister’s personality as described by those who have worked with him, and how you see him on the television.

In an article in the Independent in July, Bruce Anderson wrote, “In the summer of 2006, I asked a very senior Blairite whether it could be that Gordon was a little autistic. He gazed at me in horrified disbelief. “What do you mean, a little?”

And nearly two years ago Robert Harris wrote this article in the Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article634302.ece

Also, since you mentioned the Conservatives and the poor, perhaps you should remember who sold the poor their council houses and made them property owners. And who more recently has created a massive client state by forcing millions of poor people to pay vastly increased tax and then to claim “tax credits” when they could have been given their freedom from state slavery by being taken out of the income tax system altogether.

And who has been in government these last eleven years while the gap between rich and poor has increased? And who has doubled spending on education while more people send their children into the private sector and the gap between the results of independent schools and state schools has widened?

And who let credit and its accompanying housing bubble run out of control so that only the rich can afford to buy a house? And who presided over the first run on a bank in 140 years which fuelled a credit squeeze that has now caused mortgages to be unavailable to all but the rich? Do you want me to go on, or do you get the point?

Chas: short version: fuck off.

Longer version: how about we get a psychiatrist to pass judgement, or at least a doctor, rather than self-diagnose someone via Wikipedia and the judgement of two Blairite cretins?

Septicisle: And the same to you with little twiddly bits on.

I have a number of doctor friends who have commented that they believe Brown has Asperger’s. I also have a socialist friend (can you believe it? Hanging out with pinkos!) who is a psychiatric nurse and who has an autistic child, and it was she who pointed out the diagnosis to me. She is quite sure of it.

Yes, of course it suits a Tory to say “The Prime Minister is a loony” but it is also very likely that he has an autistic spectrum disorder or a personality disorder. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.

I have a number of doctor friends who have commented that they believe Brown has Asperger’s. I also have a socialist friend (can you believe it? Hanging out with pinkos!) who is a psychiatric nurse and who has an autistic child, and it was she who pointed out the diagnosis to me. She is quite sure of it.

Wow. Doctor’s that diagnose from TV/Magazine interviews? Fuck me, I must have missed that degree when it was on offer.

Doctors DO NOT diagnose psychiatric pathologies apart from your common all garden depression – and even then, they are not very good at it.

Psychiatric Nurses, well, they diagnose FUCK ALL. And sorry, but having an Autistic kid, DOES NOT mean you can diagnose people on the Autistic spectrum. That is grade A bullshit.

In terms of diagnosing Psychiatric pathology, even the Psychiatrists are shit at it, have a luck at this study – so what makes YOU think you’d be any better? Huh?

This is all pure right-wing bollocks – Fawkes is a cunt and so are the people that comment at his site. Nasty, deluded, homo-obsessed morons, with IQs lower than a five year olds shoe size.

Brown may be awkward socially, but that does not mean he has an illness as defined by ICD-10 or the DSM – trouble is we’ve now entered an era where, if you catalogue your CDs and put them in alphabetical order you have a “touch of OCD.”

God save us from the cult of amateur psychology.

Surely takking cocaine is a the real issue we all now the tory leaders bith number one and number two have serious questions over Cocaine. Why do the press not report this anymore? I

I asked a number of my imaginary doctor friends to read your post and comment on whether they think you have any personality disorders and they are convinced that you’re suffering from borderline narcissistic personality disorder. You should seek treatment immediately, preferably by removing your head from out of your rectum.

There’s about as much merit and credibility in such diagnoses as there is in trying to work out what exactly Van Gogh was suffering from. It does make you look like an insufferable turd, however.

Fact
The index finger ratio theory shows that there are two types of brain, the male brain and the female brain.
The male brain is better at strategy map, reading, maths, but poorer at social skills and language.
The female brain is better at social skills, language but poorer at strategy and map reading and maths,.

My index finger ratio shows I have a very male brain. I am also poor at english better at maths and very good at map reading. But the drawback is I also have poor social skills and people reading skill. This is not a mental illness it is having a male brain. The brain type 3 quarters of men have.
In reality scientists say that you have autism is just an extrem male brain of someone with poor social skills and good strategy. It is not a mental illness to have a male brain. Ofcourse aspegers syndrome is a difficult someone whould say mentla illness, but if it gets to the point that all men have to be classfied as mentally ill just because they have male brain well that is just sick and creepy, and rather sad.
Cameron in my view as womens brain, this is why he is better at social skills I havwe to problme with that but i hate Gudio if he is such a pratt he claims that anyone who has male brain is mentally ill. .
LOOK up the index finger ratio theory. It is fact, not something I made up.
Many people claim autism is just an extreme male brain.
So do we want to be run by Man or a woman’s brain. Is it mentally ill in guidos view to have male brain? Ihow male is your brain allowed to be before you are just seen as autistic.
Maybe guido has a womens brains. LOL LOL LOL LOL

It is bizzare the taking cocaine is OK but having a male brain is now a crime in todays ladyboy dimainted tory party.

Chas:
If you want to look at some evidence, just look up Asperger’s on Wikipedia and consider the prime minister’s personality as described by those who have worked with him, and how you see him on the television.

That’s not evidence – that is making some vague insinuations on the basis of TV interviews. Have you ever done a TV interview? Do you think that reflects your normal behaviour. I have, and I’m always much much more nervous then. This isn’t even a valid point, this is grasping at straws so badly that its embarassing to watch you guys even make these insinuations.

I feel sorry for people like you, I really do. This is the level of intelligence that the political right has. Jeez.

And who has been in government these last eleven years while the gap between rich and poor has increased? And who has doubled spending on education while more people send their children into the private sector and the gap between the results of independent schools and state schools has widened?

Chas, why not compare the increasing level of inequality between Labour rule and Tory rule, and then come back to me. I think you’ll find inequality increasing massively during Tory rule. But don’t let facts stand in your way!

You also admit Labour doubled money spent on education. How does that compare with money spent by the Tories?

You have mentioned Tim Montgomerie and George Bush, perhaps implying that they are delusional. But I think it is unlikely that either of them will be in the next Conservative government.

The point isn’t who is in govt. These are the people that DEFINE the current Conservative adminstrations in the US and here.

Let’s break this down a bit more. On the basis of some TV interviews, you and your ‘doctor friends’ have concluded some mental illness. For a start they must be pretty stupid to do so for taking mental ilness so lightly they reckon they can diagnose through television.

Secondly, I’m assuming that Guido, yourself, and other acolytes are spreading this theory simply because you believe the Gordon Brown is delusional. Hence, the meme. But I’ve just shown you examples of some fantastical delusion on the right. Sounds like a bit of mental illness there, going by your definition. I mean GW Bush can’t even get his words out right. Must be something wrong with him! and yet Tim Montgomerie loves him. Something wrong with this picture, no?

I’ve got a mate who’s sister adopted a doctor’s dog, and he reckons that Guido Fawkes is a safe bet for Diogenes Syndrome, and almost certainly hoards his excrement in little tupperware boxes around his house.

I am not feeling sorry for the PM. I just find it odd that you can make a claim about the left wing party leader, yet no one points out the deep issues to two top tories have still to answer. It is almost certain the cocaine allegations about the tory leadership are true.
When will labour start attacking the tories cabinet men for taking cocaine and the shadow chancellor being photographed next to prostitute with foil in front of him.
One sort of man spends his time with men who visit whores, and take cocaine? What has that go to do with fixiing the broken society.

None of you should read Paul Staines. I say this as a right-winger. His blog is nothing but the most frivolous westminster village crap. The fact that he is the most popular blogger in Britain just demostrates how uniquely trivial our political culture is. I’ve nothing against a bit of Private Eye humour now and again but its dangerous when this distracts from real issues.

Plus, his libertarian views on drugs are repellent and deeply selfish. Just because a toff like him can cope with drug addiction, doesn’t mean those in our growing underclass can do the same.

I agree with colin. I never read guidos. Blog. I used to try and post on his blog and i was banned. He only allows right wing people on. They make sick claims about the sexuality of the PM yet ignore serious questions about cocaine abuse by tory elites.
Plus there are questions on where guio fakes really made his money.

Alof of people made alot of money our the races in the late 80.s Is this where he really made his money.

I mean alof of people made alof of money from the illegal raves in the 80s.

Sunny – “Have you ever done a TV interview? Do you think that reflects your normal behaviour.”

Hehehe. I did one once for the BBC. They came and filmed me in my back garden, and for their introductory shots they made me act like I was pruning some bushes. Like I’ve ever pruned anything in my life!

Anyway, my friend’s cousin’s next-door-neighbour who’s a doctor’s receptionist saw it, and she diagnosed some kind of psychopathic personality disorder.

Just goes to show: sometimes the beeb does get it right 🙂

“Cyclops Brown” sadly lost sight in one eye whilst playing Rugby. Apparently, he was a keen Rugby player in his youth. Enthusiastic participation in team activities is not normally associated with individuals suffering from Asperger’s or autism. Thus we should just assume that he is a bit geeky.

Sunny: Just for fun, I’m going to answer you by going through your last post, point by point.

“That’s not evidence – that is making some vague insinuations on the basis of TV interviews.”

Yes it is evidence. You may not think it is good evidence and you may not like it, but it is evidence.

“Have you ever done a TV interview?” No. So what? Brown has been doing them for twenty years. If he still looks looks like a freak when he is doing them (and believe me, he does) then he probably is a freak.

“I feel sorry for people like you, I really do.” Please don’t feel sorry for me. I’m doing just fine, and I’m much happier than you, judging by the tone of your writing.

“Chas, why not compare the increasing level of inequality between Labour rule and Tory rule, and then come back to me.” That’s what I did. The wealth gap narrowed under the last Conservative administration and has widened under this one. That was my point, o slow one.

“You also admit Labour doubled money spent on education. How does that compare with money spent by the Tories?” I don’t ‘admit’ that Labour doubled money spent on education; I ACCUSE them of doubling money spent on education and getting fuck all in return. Labour has squandered £1.4 trillion pounds of ADDITIONAL taxpayers’ money since it came to power (that’s £1,400,000,000,000) and now we are bust. Our educational system is a disaster, the health service is in meltdown and as for our armed forces, it is a disgrace and abomination.

“The point isn’t who is in govt. These are the people that DEFINE the current Conservative adminstrations in the US and here.” Tim Montgomery doesn’t define anything. His website is independent of the Conservative party. George Bush is a Republican, not a Conservative, and has always been closer to Tony Blair and the Labour government than to the Conservatives, so don’t go down that alley, because you are onto a loser.

“Let’s break this down a bit more. On the basis of some TV interviews, you and your ‘doctor friends’ have concluded some mental illness. For a start they must be pretty stupid to do so for taking mental ilness so lightly they reckon they can diagnose through television.”

No. Read what I wrote. “I have a number of doctor friends who have commented that they believe Brown has Asperger’s”. Do you see? Some of my friends who are doctors (and a psychiatric nurse) have suggested that Gordon Brown has Asperger’s. This is not a ‘diagnosis’, nor is it based on television appearances. It is simply a considered assessment by medical professionals who might know a weeny bit more than you and your other illiterate, frothing correspondents.

“Secondly, I’m assuming that Guido, yourself, and other acolytes are spreading this theory simply because you believe the Gordon Brown is delusional.” I’m nobody’s acolyte and I have never suggested that Gordon Brown is delusional. It seems that you are the only one to have made that accusation. But you are probably right.

“But I’ve just shown you examples of some fantastical delusion on the right. Sounds like a bit of mental illness there, going by your definition.” What definition? I haven’t given a definition of mental illness.

“I mean GW Bush can’t even get his words out right. Must be something wrong with him!” What is your fixation with George W. Bush? He is nothing to do with British politics, except that he was Tony Blair’s puppet-master. You really do need to understand that he has always been far closer to the Labour government that he has to anyone in the Conservative party. And yes, he talks almost as much bollocks as John Prescott.

Now get Mummy to change your nappy and give you a nice warm bottle, and sleep well. Good night.

Hey – just to wind you pinkos up a little more: YouGov have conducted their latest poll for the leftwing think-tank Compass. There is nothing on Compass’s website (that I could see), which is not surprising given the numbers:

Conservatives 48%
Labour 26%
Liberal 16%

Trundle over to the Electoral Calculus website and plug the numbers into their general election predictor:

Conservatives: 453 seats
Labour: 148 seats
Liberal: 21 seats

Conservative majority: 256

Weep, pinkos.

Christ, my dislike for Brown is tremendous, but you’re argument is worthless, Chas.

You’ve asserted that the “evidence…points firmly in the bonkers direction“, and then quietly changed that to the assertion that it is “very likely” that he has asbergers on the basis of anonymous accounts and “how you see him on the television“.

It’s very easy, through the prism of the media, to apply characteristics to figures. To demonstrate, allow me to construct a hypothetical case for John McCain’s senility. I can easily point towards episodes of forgetfulness and incomprehension, possibly exacerbated by a recurring trauma . Added to that, my friend, a reknowned psychiatrist, agrees and – as if more were needed – McCain looks really old.

Of course, the above is really bogus.

– Politicians will state what they believe will reflect favourably upon them, and this varies wildly from context to context.

– Citing a ‘friend’ is merely an unsubstantiated appeal to authority. Their credentials as ‘medical professionals’, however, are worthless without citation.

– A considered assessment would necessitate the act of assessing, and would therefore demand access to the subject. Limited media appearances and quoted accounts from anonymous figures don’t even come close to this.

Ben

I meant, of course, ‘your’ (and am aware that this will appear before my original post).

Chas publishes all that shite at 1.47 in the morning… and he thinks someone else has got a personality disorder!

Wow!

Amazing the number of people who simultaneously claim to never read and condemn the blog.

The question is about Brown’s character. My view is he is weird to the point of delusional. His public on the record utterances are increasingly showing manifestations of some kind of personality disorder. That is a legitimate matter of concern when we are talking about the head of government. It is also one of the most discussed issues in Westminster so it would be rather remiss of me not to mention it.

Incidentally, the po faced hypocrisy is laughable. Witness the concerted attempt by the left to paint Boris as a monster and/or idiot. Neither have worked because they don’t go with the grain of the truth. Whereas the “Gordon is a Weirdo” meme resonates because it is the truth.

There’s a common disease among the readers of the pilot’s website pprune.org whenever a plane crashes – some nut will come on and tell everyone exactly what happened based on what he’s seen on TV. He’s invariably shown up as a know-nothing and shouted off the board.

In the case of Gordon, my objection to him is on the Blairite policies he still pursues – ID cards, keeping troops in Iraq, creeping NHS privatisation, PFI, cravenly running at the sight of the rich while beating up on the poor. Since most or all of these are perfectly acceptable to the Right, they have to find a bogus reason to paint him as different from themselves, when in fact he’s about 90% the same.

I do not read your blog because you banned me for arguing back against the sick allegations you and mad trolls make about the PM on it. I will not read it again. I did read it but have not for months.
Why do you not answer these questions.

1. Do you realise men are supposed to lack social skills compared to women and be better at strategy so all this wiedo stuff is this hatingmen with male brains. Do you realise that? Are you just against men running the country?

2. Why do you not ask questions about drug use by leading tories?

3. Why do you question the pms sexualty on your blog. Whay are the people on your blog so obbsessed with the sexualty of the PM. Are you are all in the closet.

I have found this weirdo tag is just used for men who have male brains. I am fed up with ladyboys who call anyone who has a male brain a weirdo.

The tory leader denied he had snorted cocaine, but when asked if had taken cocaine refused to answer the question. Ask why this is guido ask why this is?
Why would you refuse to answer if you had taken cocaine but find it OK to answer that you had not snorted cocaine. Has he just taken cocaine in another way?
Guido will not look into this as he is a coward, who the tory establishment regard as their pet.

Yoko:

1. Hate Gordon running the country. Do actually think the country was better run by a woman. Much better run. Elizabeth I and Maggie the Great did a far better job.

2. We do take the piss all the time, pay attention. We have had cartoons of spliff smoking Tories even. For chrissake I’ve done drugs with loads of Tories, some of whom are “senior”. The leader of the Tories has admitted to smoking dope as have half of the shadow cabinet. Unless you have a picture of the sniffing coke what more do you want me to say?

3. No, some of them are out of the closet, some of them are in the closet, some of them don’t really know, almost all of us however enjoy taking the piss out of the tendency of the PM to mince and make weird facial expressions. Not something you can do here is it?

The autism rights movement encourages autistic people to “embrace their neurodiversity” and encourages society to accept autistics as they are.
Guido fawkes the bigotted scum bag argues against this.

P.S. Let me help you on your why oh why questions: because he snorted cocaine perhaps?

Guido fawkes why do you hate autistic people?

OK sorry for calling you a scum bag then. Byt why do you use autsim as a area to mock people. Autism can be a good thing for leader to have?
Why would I think a catholic bring nutter of a queen and a Thatcher were a good leaders.

OK sorry for calling Mr Fawkes a scum bag there. But society should be more accepting of the spectrum of different personality traits. Plus there is an argument that aspergers syndrome is good thing for a leader.
It is a sign of a male brain. Show you have better strategic skill.
Autism is thought of as a condition mostly affecting boys, with boys many times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with autism or Asperger syndrome.

The autism rights movement (ARM) is a social movement that encourages autistic people, their caregivers and society to adopt a position of neurodiversity, accepting autism as a variation in functioning rather than a mental disorder to be cured. The ARM advocate a greater tolerance of autistic behaviors, teaching autistic individuals skills that allow them to better cope with the non-autistic world rather than forcing them to behave like their neurotypical peers, and objects to treatment goals like extinguishing harmless stimming, forcing eye contact and breaking routines.

Simon Baron-Cohen said it’s a bit of both: people with autism are trying to fit in, but society should change to some extent. Educating teachers and other children at school could help children who have a hard time at school and are often bullied and teased. Baron-Cohen said:
“I do think there is a benefit in trying to help people with autism-spectrum conditions with areas of difficulty such as emotion recognition. Nobody would dispute the place for interventions that alleviate areas of difficulty, while leaving the areas of strength untouched. But to talk about a ‘cure for autism’ is a sledge-hammer approach and the fear would be that in the process of alleviating the areas of difficulty, the qualities that are special – such as the remarkable attention to detail, and the ability to concentrate for long periods on a small topic in depth – would be lost. Autism is both a disability and a difference. We need to find ways of alleviating the disability while respecting and valuing the difference.”

In my view this is no different to racism or homophobia. The PM is being discriminated against and bullied for not having the more ladyboy brain prefers. I would not be surprised if he does have mild aspergers syndrome. I could not care one bit if he does. It is a sign of a male brain.
Why did men evolve to have such brains? Because men were the leaders of the tribe. So eh tell me what is wrong with the leader of our tribne having such a mind.
I am fed up with ladyboy men hating men who have male brains. :

The liberal says tolerate and understand those with aspergers the tory says bully them.
The liberal says there is no reason why someone with aspergers syndrome cannot be the leader In fact a male brain is what has normally run society. OK so it is not useful down the pub or in the nightclub chatting up babes. But that is not what running a country is about.
If you had a general would you rather one with a male brain?
Good at stategy or one with a female brain good at social skills.
I think the anser is obvious.
I say to the tory ladyboys you stick to the parlour making tea and scones leave running the country to the real men.

“Witness the concerted attempt by the left to paint Boris as a monster and/or idiot.”

There’s a difference between being ‘idiot’ defined as ““person lacking professional skill” or “person lacking in sense and judgement” and “bonkers” defined as “mentally unbalanced“. The former can be an assessment of a professional record, and the latter is a medical diagnosis.

I don’t know why Labourites would be irritated by such a meme, mind. Unlike mudraking its only result will be a few sniggering commenters.

“Whereas the “Gordon is a Weirdo” meme resonates because it is the truth.”

Mental disability = weird? Noice.

Ben

“Whereas the “Gordon is a Weirdo” meme resonates because it is the truth.”

There is, of course, the possibility that this resonates with Guido’s readers because they’re a gaggle of boggle-eyed, Thatcherite assclowns who would probably salute him if he ran a post implying that Gordon Brown is variously a) the be-wanged reincarnation of Eva Braun b) a robotic side salad from the planet Scrotus 14 or c) an oversized Venezuelan badger with a fondness for tailored suits.

I realise this could be seen as a rather blunt ad hominem, but let’s not kid ourselves by pretending otherwise.

Well if cod psychology is the order of the day, I’d say Guido and his motley bunch of sycophants are “projecting”. I mean, a self-proclaimed libertatian accusing someone else of sociopaty? Come on!

This thread is an ex-thread, it has ceased to be, it is no more.

Still, I’m quite impressed at the right-winger at #19, who, despite correctly managing to hate Guido, does so on the basis of his only mitigating political belief…

No, Guido, Brown’s utterances of late prove nothing at all. He could hardly say to the gathering hacks while on a plane that “yes, we’re doomed and we’re going to lose the next election”, could he? Blair showed many of the same delusional signs towards the end of his tenure, the constant belief that he was doing what was right and nothing else mattered, but no one accused him of mental illness or a personality disorder, because it was just the ultimate manifestation of how absolute power corrupts absolutely.

As for the accusations of hypocrisy, let’s not get started. The second anyone on the left impugns Saint Margaret the right jumps on them like a ton of bricks. Meanwhile, the right thinks it’s wonderfully jolly and amusing to accuse a prime minister of either mental illness, a personality disorder or autism, and should anyone object it’s either a bit of fun and not meant seriously or a legitimate question because he’s running the country. What it actually is is the final smear, the opportunity to completely destroy someone. Even the Conservatives moved back from describing Brown as weird because they realised it was a step too far. That of course seems to create an opening for you, though.

Sorry Sunny but I’ve long suspected Brown isn’t all there. Blair was super neurotic to the point of being on Valium in the run up to invading Iraq. Kennedy had a drink problem which was well known within Westminster before the news covered it properly.

The point here does any of those conditions cause bad judgment/inability to lead? Is Brown being messed up in the head the reason why Labour is failing so badly or is it simply that’s he’s just a crap leader who happens to have mental issues?

This is rather reminiscent of the kind of attack politics used to such great effect by the right in the US. Trying to stem the tide is going to be futile, I predict.

Just to intrude on this thread’s funeral to observe that Iain Dale is joining this chorus, albeit with nudges and winks rather than coming our and saying it.

We the great unwashed have every right to call him bonkers, as he clearly is – and we are the ones who are suffering the fruits of this. Me, I’m with the Aspergic crowd, as so many of his symptoms chime with Aspergers. Whatever, I just wish he would GO AWAY.

Disclaimer. Labour voter from my first vote in 1970 until Iraq. Hated Bliar – LOATH Brown, for his utter incompetence, and for his assaults on the poor. Labour? My arse. Tool of the bankers.

Total denial of the bleedin’ obvious is also a psychological disorder, which does rather condemn you Sunny and all those commenting who are defending Brown out of political partisanship rather than on any evidence or similar.

There is an informed body of opinion that believes there to be truth in the Autism/Personality Disorder allegation and an uninformed but loyal group of Brownites trying to rubbish the accusers rather than proving otherwise about the Prime Mentalist.

Let’s also be very clear that attack politics are used by all sides and that Brown and his allies used them extensively and effectively against Blair and his clique. In the end if Labour supporters don’t like having their leader be so unpopular then perhaps they should have kept the one who was popular with the voters after all.

It is sad that such pressure is upon the shoulders of one man. It is without doubt that GB looks very ill. Maybe the rumours of rages of anger are true, so what? If he’s trying to do the job surrounded by idiots who can blame him? With two wars and young soldiers dying every day, the threat of another Cold War, the economy near out of control and the effects of his economic policies hurting the poor most I’m not surprised if he were under enormous mental strain.

>>In my view this is no different to racism or homophobia. The PM is being discriminated against and bullied for not having the more ladyboy brain prefers. I would not be surprised if he does have mild aspergers syndrome. I could not care one bit if he does. It is a sign of a male brain.
Why did men evolve to have such brains? Because men were the leaders of the tribe. So eh tell me what is wrong with the leader of our tribne having such a mind.
I am fed up with ladyboy men hating men who have male brains. :<<

Wow you clearly have a lot of issues few of them seem political or even well adjusted.

So when Alastair Campbell spread stories about John Major tucking his shirt into his underpants, and when Labour claimed Maggie was insane, that was OK, was it?

Please. I don’t know for certain whether Gordon Brown has an autistic spectrum disorder. But what I am completely certain of is that Guido doesn’t know either, and nor does he care a damn. It’s just opportunistic spinning and smearing, and it’s utterly disreputable.

Here’s his diagnosis:

He told smirking political correspondents on the flight to Beijing that he was going to win the next election, he tells confidantes that he believes the economy will turn around in a few months. We are told to expect an economic plan to turn things around – a plan which the Treasury is openly briefing it knows nothing about. He is clearly becoming increasingly disconnected from reality.

Now, what was it someone was saying about “an informed body of opinion”?

Token Tory: No, it wasn’t. But Major tucking his shirt into his underpants is on a completely different plane to alleging or claiming that Brown has autism or a personality disorder.

Guido has just linked here so the green ink brigade will be arriving in force shortly.

The truth is that even if Brown had this Syndrome it woudn’t affect his effectiveness people should judge him on that not on the personality stuff. The problem now is that politicians who have any variation from whitehall political drones are character assasinated that is a fault found on all sides of the political media it wont happen but I wish people would focus on the issues and outcomes not the individualisation of politics. No wonder people are losing interest in politics .

New labour cant complain they briefed against anyone who came up with an in convenient truth be they old ladies left on trolleys too long (racist), anyone who upset Mandelson (gay), anyone who questioned the war in Iraq (unpatriotic or fundamentalist) , anyone who questioned Nuclear energy policy or so called Green towns (environmental rapist),etc etc

The media has not covered itself in glory but the slow americanisation of politics has emphasised the personality issues too much. This has always been an issue even in the victorian era GOM (Gordons own murdered) was an example of personality politics but who really believes that Gladstone, Disraeli, Loydd George or Churchill would rise to be PM now they would be brought down by their personality quirks.

I don’t know for certain whether Gordon Brown has an autistic spectrum disorder. But what I am completely certain of is that Guido doesn’t know either, and nor does he care a damn.

Aye, well said (although I think that the latter would admit as much).

//
You also admit Labour doubled money spent on education. How does that compare with money spent by the Tories?
//

Money spent means nothing. How it is used is what matters. Our current mob past masters at pissing away our hard-earned cash. The education system is a clear basket case after 11 years pf New Stasi, and they have hurled money at it.

Mike I do have issues with people like you. These are facts I mention. Not some made up drivel that you spout out. Look them up. Look up the top researcher Simon Baron-Cohen . Look up the index finger ratio. Mne and wonmen have different brains.
Mne have poorer sociak skills, and better ability at stategy. women are better at language and social skills. These are biologicla facts.
When I found this out it sorted out alot of my issues as i wondered why i had poor social skills. I have checked my ratio on the index finger raiot and i do have male brain You can all do this. This is fact by the way.
So when I hear people use aspergers sumdrome as awepaon to bully people I do feel anger ar morons who have not recongsed that different people have different chracter traits and ther is no shame in having amale brain. You are the sort of bully who wants to break people down and makep[eople feel ashamed of who they are. I suggest you have a female brain, and have an issue with men with men who have male brains. You are the problem you are the bigot. You set me off again. You create issues with people.

” Mike

The truth is that even if Brown had this Syndrome it woudn’t affect his effectiveness people should judge him on that not on the personality stuff”

Twaddle – Aspergers means he will have great difficulty in relating to other people. This has popped up again and again, for years. No smoke. Surely a PM needs to be able to work constructively with people? I have at one arm’s distance, a report of Brown’s appalling rages, from someone I trust totally. This is NOT a good man to be running a country, as the past year attests to. Cock up after cock up after cock up.

Mike are you mad? It was the PM that got labelled as gay by the other spin doctors now you want to target him for revenge on Blair. Do you realise Blair would love it if this PM got the blame for his spinning. That is like invadinfg poland as renege for the NAZI party. Anyway what about your tories and the coacine issue.

Why do you hate autiostic people Mike why? They have tough lives this is evil bigotry as simple as that. You are just crude bigot.
I would love it if the PM has aspergers syndrome he would be an advert that such people can have sucessful lives.

Jeremy Poynton Actualy aspergers syndrome does not mean that such people do have tempers. Let us not have silly idea simplstic idea of such people. Thye do have emtions they just lack the ability to read people and to understand people socially. I support sufferers of aspergers syndrome but is not what you seem to think it is.

Wasn’t there one of those expert witness doctors defrocked for diagnosing someone from a TV clip? Not Roy Meadow. One of the others. And he WAS actually a doctor! Before he was defrocked. Can an irresponsible and disreputable blogger like Staines be defrocked? Take his blogging licence off him for two years with nine points on it when he resumes?

@Guido Fawkes – don’t feed the trolls.

@yoko – You are clearly barking so I don’t know why I am bothering but I noticed the quality of your grammar improved in one of your posts. So I copied the text and Googled it. What do you know – you lifted half of your comment from Wikipedia:

“The autism rights movement (ARM) is a social movement that encourages autistic people, their caregivers and society to adopt a position of neurodiversity, accepting autism as a variation in functioning rather than a mental disorder to be cured. The ARM advocate a greater tolerance of autistic behaviors, teaching autistic individuals skills that allow them to better cope with the non-autistic world rather than forcing them to behave like their neurotypical peers, and objects to treatment goals like extinguishing harmless stimming, forcing eye contact and breaking routines.”

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_rights_movement

If you are going to use the Job Centre computers to post on here, please find something original to write and don’t steal other people’s work and pass it off as your own. Freak.

Quite an amusing debate here.

However the chances are that Labour are setting themselves up for one of the most catastrophic election defeats in modern times. Brown will then go, after which everyone will say how he was never suited for the job in the first place, i.e. what everyone has always really known all along.

Loyalty to the Party is all well and good, but right now we are witnessing just where it can lead to.

@ septicisle

I’m not so sure. In Major’s case it was simply personal abuse, screeched because Labour hadn’t anything more thoughtful to say.

This stuff about Broon being a nutter is the same. Let’s not forget it was his own party that started it, as the links show.

FWIW I think Broon is simply a short-tempered, indecisive individual who is poor at personal relationships, has a fear of open debate, and uses plotting and manoeuvre as a substitute for engaging in either. One can infer as much from what his colleagues have said about him.

Gary Numan of ‘Cars’ fame has Asperger’s, and has said that he didn’t appreciate that to invite people over, then sit reading a magazine and ignoring them, was considered rude. Broon likewise apparently didn’t realise that it was rude, when being driven around by his girlfriend, to put his Walkman on and ignore her. Asperger’s? Possibly, but there’s not enough evidence there. Egocentric and rude? Sure!

He’s also under stress because he’s 20 points behind in the polls, largely because of his own poor decisions last autumn, and that in turn is exacerbating his negative attributes. It is actually hard to think of any positive attributes. Being a workaholic doesn’t count because it’s ouputs that matter.

@ Chris Paul

Yes, forget the guy’s name but he watched a TV programme about a child’s death and on the basis of his TV viewing he rang the relevant police force and asserted that this was definitely infanticide.

He got struck off, as I hope that bastard who wrecked the MMR program will be.

Broon may be ill but it requires the skill of a specialist to say so. It is more likely he is just an obnoxious cowardly bully.

I don’t understand why we are invited to feel sorry for Gordon Brown, the man who wrecked the UK economy. I will reserve my pity for the people whose pensions he stole, and the children whose future he has mortgaged with his PFI wheeze to keep government debt off the books. We are fucked now and we are fucked for the future. This country will never recover. I don’t know whether Brown has Aspergers, but the anecdotal evidence is that he is, at least, a man struggling with anger issues.

speticisle

“The whole “Brown is bonkers / not normal” thing is designed to attack on two fronts; firstly, because just look at how wonderfully normal the Conservatives – there’s only, err, 15 Old Etonians on the front bench, which is wonderfully representative of the country at large.”

Wow, I thought that we were trying to get the most able representatives, not the most representative. If you want the latter, we can start off by ensuring that half of the House of Commons have an IQ below 100, etc. etc.

The thing that annoys me more than anything about this is that it’s meant to suggest just how wonderfully brilliant and normal both Blair and Cameron were.

Well, hello Arty McStrawman! I thought that we’d see you pop up sooner rather than later…

DK

Reading this thread I was suddenly drawn to the musings of “Yoko Oyes”, the style of which reminded me of one “Dirty Rotten Socialist” whose rantings also descended into a torrent of bad language, typos and poor spelling the more excited he became. Is it possible that DRS has returned under a new identity?

Kate Belgrave

Get a clue before commenting, first off, it’s CaliguLa not Caligua. The horse wasn’t a race horse, and it’s consul not counsel (you can be reasonably certain tha the horse was not a lawyer appointed by letters patent to the British monarch). As for the Jesus stuff, well Henry was concerned with Leviticus 18:16 which says “You shall not have intercourse with your brother’s wife, for that would be a disgrace to your brother” and of course Catherine of Aragon was the wide of Arthur (Henry’s older brother) first, so that allegation seems somewhat weak to say the least. Otherwise a well researched post.

“starting and constantly promoting malicious narratives”

or, alternatively, you could say he was telling the truth and trying to publicise the fact that our unelected prime minister is indeed a complete mad man with no idea what he’s doing.

I’ve never met anyone who thinks that Gordon Brown is sane, or intelligent; I’ve got no idea where his supporters are dredged up from, but I wish they’d all face reality.

1. Mind if somebody try’s to point out having Asperger’s does not mean you are loony and it is not a pathology, or is this the wrong crowd? (Ask Honest John for details.) There would be no point on Guido’s blog, that is certainly the wrong crowd.

2. There where, and still are, much worse things said about Margaret Thatcher by those on the left. Claiming an opponent is mad is hardly anything new, nor does the left have a clean pair of hands.

DK: And of course those 15 Old Etonians are the most able and not just the product of the best education which money can buy. Please spare us. As for the “straw man”, if you seriously think that this isn’t aimed at further hastening the demise of Brown and installing one of those other shockingly normal individuals, whether it be Miliband or Cameron, then I’d like you to tell us what is is, because Guido certainly isn’t concerned about Brown’s health.

People like Blacksun who have nothing interesting to say so they ‘sex up’ their posts with naughty words like f*** and c*** pain me.

Trust me, an f*** and or a c*** does not somehow magically make a tedious post interesting and edgy.

Grow up.

This thread is gold, even if I did get bored halfway through. However, I particularly liked the ironic juxtaposition of Sunny’s original post with the inspiration behind the name of this site that Sunny also happened to set-up.

After all, the site was named as such to mock the right wing conspiracy theorists who talk about there being a left-liberal conspiracy in news and reporting, Now here we have the site’s founder posting that there is some sort right wing conspiracy to create a “malicious narrative” against a left-liberal Prime minister.

http://www.chickyog.net/2008/08/27/is-guido-bonkers/

Dizzy,

That’s a most terrific and profound observation. Give yourself a pat on the back.

*rolls eyes*

I agree – a devastating smackdown from Dizzy there.

Aaron, can I go and have a wank instead?

Why don’t you go and give Tim Ireland a ring?

If Alastair Campbell reckons that Gordon is Stark Raving Bonkers, then it must be that Gordon is Stark Raving Bonkers.

As the great Dubya once said”MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” hahahahahahha you lot are suffering a serious personality disorder ….you have no”sense of humour”

Can I just take this opportunity to condemn everybody involved.

Cheers.

I think calling him “bonkers” is actually being quite polite!

It’s not as though it is being said with no evidence….I would list a few but I’m not sure there is enough space!!

Aaron, can I go and have a wank instead? ~ dizzy

[tumbleweed]

…..

[/tumbleweed]

Bonkers or not (bonkers in my opinion) he is certainly somewhat odd, though so is Blair and his wife.

Though as for a diagnosis,.Is it any more credible than the description od Dr David Kelly as a ‘Walter Mitty figure’ what evidence was that based on, the same as us being within 45 mi9ns of attack.

I’m afraid the Emperor has no clothes, and it’s starting to get very chilly.

Slagging of the Tories for going to Eton, this must be the only country in the world where you slate politicians for having a good education.

Because nulabour are all the good working class stock

W.W.

Loco Yoko – “I would love it if the PM has aspergers syndrome he would be an advert that such people can have sucessful lives.”
LOL! Brown’s beggered the country and will single-handedly be responsible for putting Labour in opposition for a generation. He got within jumping distance of the premiership by bullying and spin, but too scared to jump himself, anxiously had to wait for Blair to give it to him just as the economy was going tits up.

Successful? The most Brown can hope for is that in a hundred years he will forgotten. If he’s remembered, he’ll be a joke, an embarrassment. I couldn’t wish for a worse fate for aspergers people then having this lying, incompetent, disconnected and angry FAILURE be their poster-boy.

DES – so this is where you’re lurking…

I see your usual trash about your IQ and “post graduate qualifications” has surfaced… Have you told anyone else that your Post-grad qualification is one gold star on your Macdonalds name badge? I’d hate to steal your thunder!

Why are you going under the moniker of “YOKO OYES” – had a sex change? – or have the voices in your head been giving you bad advice again… Next time they tell you to cut off your privates – ignore them! The NHS hasn’t got the money to sew it back on again! (hmmm – cuts?)

Back to the point – yep, Gordy’s barking mad. His actions, repetitions of “getting on with the job”, his constant retelling of his ONLY anecdote (stolen form elsewhere) about reading newspaper backwards etc… just remind me of Dustin Hoffman in Rainman. John Major may (allegedly) have tucked his underpants into his shirt ((c) Alistair Campbell – now available at the right price to anyone wishing to start a war) – but at least he doesn’t insist on buying them from Walmart, which is something I would not put past Gordy mcBroon.

SEBHFUAR

Yoko Oyes.

“I do not care for your hate filled ilk.”

It’s put down’s like this that’s worth the entry fee alone. Definitely going in my blogging arsenal.

I worked for the one-eyed son of a manse and can confirm that he is very much psychologically flawed. I could ilustrate with numerous examples from things I have witnessed but I would be here until polling day for the next general election if I even attempted to document a 10th of the things I witnessed.

Anything to do with a rocking horse?

Guys, who really gives a flying crap about your keyboard insults. I certainly don’t. they go against this blog’s comments policy and will be deleted. If you want to have public willy waving contest, bugger off back to Guido’s. No one wants you here. Certainly not me.

Who cares if he’s autistic or not? He’s a pathological liar and lies to the British people. Should be ejected from office on that alone

Brown is bad. Whether he’s mad as well is irrelevant. He needs to go

Sunny,

Why does your site keep crashing my PC.

Also, just remind me what price Brown sold our Gold reserves at, and what is the price of Gold now.

If he isn’t bonkers, he is incompetent, though I suspect he is both.

W.W.

Sunny said: “Guys, who really gives a flying crap about your keyboard insults. ”

Spoilsport. No offence but this is the most interesting your site has been in a long time. I thought you were supposed to be Liberal!

Unless you ban Yoko/DES/Miggs, I suspect we bullying, right wing ladyboys with our womens’ brains will be back for more.

Toodlepip.

The general consensus in the UK (and on this board!) is that Brown is well and truly bananas. Time to face facts Sunny Hundal!

Sunny,

I feel sorry for people like you, I really do. This is the level of intelligence that the political right has. Jeez.

That’s right, because the Left are not only super intelligent, but they back up all of their assertions with facts too. Ain’t that right, Sunny?

Chas, why not compare the increasing level of inequality between Labour rule and Tory rule, and then come back to me. I think you’ll find inequality increasing massively during Tory rule. But don’t let facts stand in your way!

Quite right, Sunny; you show him! Look, here’s an interesting table from the ONS showing the distribution of marketable wealth from 1976 to 2003. Look at the massive…

Oh, wait, it shows very little change at all — even under the Tories! I certainly don’t think that it shows “inequality increasing massively during Tory rule”.

Well, never mind. Don’t let the facts get in your way, Sunny…

DK

Sunny,

When someone says he worked for Gordon Brown, surely it’s relevant to the question posed in this thread to enquire about certain rumours that have a bearing upon GB’s mental capacity.

Why doesn’t someone use the freedom of information act to request details of how many replacement desks, cs, monitors, etc…, had to be supplied to Gordo’s office whilst at the Treasury. Will tell an interesting story…

Anyway, if he’s whiter than white how come he knowingly allowed both the Official Secrets Act and Civil Service code to be breached. Now that’s a very big story for whoever uncovers that one…

I’m sorry, I thought you worked for GB; why don’t you spare us the bother and just tell us?

Why would I want to call Tim Ireland, surely easier just to hang around in Westminster waiting him to make a tit of himself again and point and laugh isn’t it?

Or you could have a wank while thinking of just that, I suppose. Your choice.

“You seem to have gone through every line I wrote and marked them.”

That’s ‘cos this shit is comedy gold mate. Look on it as a gift.

Good god this thread has got out of hand. Tory trolls ain’t what they used to be. Ben is absolutely right.

As someone who’s suffered from mental health difficulties in the past, I find it frankly insulting that Brown’s mental health is being discussed in this way. Does a personality disorder really make someone unfit for rule? I’d call it a requirement. To want and pursue the highest political leadership, you need to be slightly upfucked in the first place.

Yoko has one of the only sensible points on this post: if we’re calling Brown ‘bonkers’ (which, by the way, is in NO WAY synonymous with autism) then why the hell aren’t we calling our seeming future Beloved Leader on his drug abuse?

Unity? UNITY? We need you, damnit!

Don’t be so simple yacht boy. Brown wouldn’t be able to launch any nukes without the say-so of George Bush, who is of complete sound mind also.

Did I say something?

All the people who think that calling Brown bonkers is some kind of media conspiracy – just look at the man or listen to him. He has an inverted Midas touch: every thing the man touches turns to shit ….. which is why “bonkers” is the least unkind thing that one can say about a man who is less popular than Mugabe and with good reason.

Yacht Boy,

My understanding is that the British Nuclear deterrent is subject to US authority. Perhaps Oliver Kamm, who seems to know more about this sort of stuff than is really healthy, could clarify?

Quite how reassuring that might be is a bit questionable, given the current White House incumbent. Or, indeed his VP. Still the madness of King George, or the shenanigans of Cheney are nothing to worry about, are they?

Septicisle I’d rather think of leper than someone will an inferiority complex and the cerebral faculties of a single cell organism. Frankly the gene pool surrounding him could do with a little chlorine, it’s just a shame that chlorine wouldn’t stop him from bombarding people’s email addresses forcing them to add server side rules to delete them before them ride.

Still… on the wider point and issue as I originally raised which you have skillfully ignored, I am rather interested to know how you think it is not richly ironic that a site that wished to mock loony right wing conspiracist should now be arguing a baseless conspioracy theory itself. This is not just about Guido, this is, as Sunny argued, about the “political right” in general term strategically trying to create “malicious narratives”.

Incidentally, why do people inist on using the dodgy postmodern terminology of narratives? It’s like having to sift through Derrida and Baudrillard.

dizzy – would you like a Blue Peter badge for that point above? I’m just pointing out the formation of a narrative. If you don’t think it is, fine. We disagree. No big deal.

My question to this thread wasn’t about how nasty all this is. My point was to try and generate some discussion about how the left should respond.

I always find it interesting that the left-wing commenters resort to sarcasm “dizzy – would you like a Blue Peter badge for that point above?” or just plain abuse “Chas: short version: fuck off.” in response to reasoned argument.

Even prospective Labour MPs do it to their own party members, like Mike Hobday over at Labourhome, who’s sophisticated rejection of a proposal consisted entirely of “What absolute rubbish!”

I suppose you have to resort to that level of debate if the last 11 years shows that your policies not only don’t work, but make matters worse.

Oooh, look, Dizzy knows who Derrida and Baudrillard are!

Applauds

Wanks

Sunny,

“Promoting” a “malicious narrative”, maybe: “creating”, no.

The elephant in the room here is the fact that Gordon Brown’s psychological state was the subject of Westminster gossip and press speculation long before Guido Fawkes discovered blogger.com, and it was Brown’s Labour colleagues – specifically, Number 10 and Alistair Campbell – who put it out there.

The same is true of rumours about Gordon Brown’s sexuality; it wasn’t Conservatives that spread innuendo about him, but enemies in the Labour party.

When bloggers on the right comment on Brown’s “psychological flaws” it is part of a “malicious narrative” that the right “excels at” promoting? Fine, but what is it when press officers in the Labour Party spin exactly the same line?

Put it another way; if you’re asking how the Left should respond, my initial suggestion would be that, given the boundless ingenuity of the vast right-wing conspiracy, it might be a good idea to stop putting ideas in our heads…

Some twat said..”This is all pure right-wing bollocks – Fawkes is a cunt and so are the people that comment at his site”

Is that because they tend to use the “C” word all the time and be abusive to anyone with alternative views….how ironic!

Mr Eugenides,

It is transparently obvious that the Tories are attempting to inflict another pseudo Brit who is actually a Scot on us by the back door. Given that his father was born in Huntly, and you take your nationality from your father, don’t you? This is deep stuff, they sent David Cameron to Eton, for fucks sake, they gave him a toffee accent, but they forgot to change his name! This would be remarkably stupid had they not also inflicted, oh I don’t know, Alex Douglas Hume, Bonar Law and, perhaps William Gladstone on an unsuspecting English public. It ought to be transparently clear that he is just another Scotchman on the make, yet another alien attempting to take over the levers of English governance. But pretending to be British when you are actually Scottish is probably enough to drive you mad. Look what it has done to your good self and the ever reliable Devils’ Kitchen.

Clearly this is an illness awaiting a diagnosis.

Put it another way, he’ll probably turn out to be off his trolley too.

Beware the memes you play with…..

Dead easy…just get any PM to have an annual physical and mental check with the results made public.

This nutter has his finger on the red button and whether you are left or right most of us don’t want to go up in a mushroom cloud!!!

@Laurie Penny

//
Good god this thread has got out of hand. Tory trolls ain’t what they used to be. Ben is absolutely right.

As someone who’s suffered from mental health difficulties in the past, I find it frankly insulting that Brown’s mental health is being discussed in this way. Does a personality disorder really make someone unfit for rule?
//

In Brown’s case, it clearly does. His reign over just over one year has been an utter disaster.

And let me remind you about some of his early triumphs

Foot and Mouth. Caused as a result of an argument between a government facility and a private one, as to who should stump up £50k for a new drain. Govt facility couldn’t afford it, as some bloke called Brown had slashed their budget.

Cost to tountry – c£10 million

Floods – much of the damage could have been prevented had some bloke called Brown not slashed the budget for flood defences year on year.

The man is a total disaster. And the worst liar in the world. I particularly liked his line about selling our gold, “in order to diversify the country’s portfolio ….. into gold”

You couldn’t make him up. Sadly for us, his mum and dad did.

Phil,

I refer you to 112. I suspect we, the UK, cannot let off nuclear missiles without the approval of the White House. However we are awaiting Oliver Kamms’ definitive view. I wonder if we’ll ever get it?

My God, Gladstone was a Tory – who knew…

The Brown is Bonkers meme is out there for the same reasons as the Brown is closeted meme, amusement and malice. People post that Brown is crackers with a malicious glee because they don’t like him as a person or as a leader. They hope to amuse those who agree with them and convert or offend those that don’t. As a blogger it is great fun to sit back and await the “howls of protest.”

Mental illness does not seem to be a bar to high political office, indeed one could make the case that politics as a career path was an early adopter of equal opportunities for the mentally ill.

A quick look at the crowd at any given party conference should be enough to convince you that the field is populated by fruit loops of every political hue.

NightJack,

Perhaps we should all stop seeing politicians as their Spitting Image caricatures. Although, taking the absolute piss out of politicians is probably the only commonly held ‘British’ trait, right enough.

Actually I worked at Number 11 for some years. Apart from being very rudely insulted on a number of occasions by Ed Balls, and on one particularly memorable occasion by his somewhat unpleasant wife Yvette, I don’t have many recollections of Gordon Brown actually showing signs of mental disturbance. I am sure many of us in one way or another might fall into the Wikipedia ‘guidelines’ for diagnosing Aspergers Syndrome but I don’t in all honesty feel that Gordon Brown does. I’m afraid it takes a lot more than the man picking his nose on camera to demonstrate that he is not fit for office or that he has a mental illness.

LibCon contributors: “Bonkers” is an awful word, but if you’re trying to argue that Guido et al are wrong when they say that Gordon Brown has psychological issues, then you’re on a hiding to nothing, since he clearly does.

I don’t know many politicians who can be called sane: the more they get, the more divorced from reality they get – rendering them all well-spoken lunatics.

Poor old lefties. Still demanding that people are prohibited from having opinions they don’t like, still claiming that taking the piss out of them is some kind of hate crime, still pathetically clinging to their poisonous “ideals” when the whole world knows this “equality” tosh is a one way ticket to death camps.

And now their Komandant in chief is clearly several bogies short of a nostil-full, they dont’ want anyone to mention it. He’s nuts. Always has been. A ticking timebomb of neuroses. Someone who uses the same meaningless phrase eight times in a forty second answer to a question he hasn’t been asked is either on some perverse japanese quiz show, or is a nut. Broon’s a nut. Get used to it. He’ll have topped himself within a year out of office, you mark my words.

@Frank Fisher: Yeah, funny you should mention that. Who was that fella who used to get his political opponents dragged off to mental hospitals because they were ‘clearly’, ‘obviously’ mad (and no need to consult a doctor, natch)? You know the one, Georgian bloke, big moustache, Steel or something wasn’t it?

“the pm is very mentally string” – that explains a lot. I’m trying to fathom out what this means, but I suspect you mean menstruating – again, explains a lot, especially for at least one week in any given month.

“He recovered from losing an eye and a child” – ooh the poor love! Let’s all give him a cuddle and a cup of tea…. As if I give a flying….

He should have been careful what he wished for – he got it (or was it some kind of pagan pact with the devil – “I’ll give you an eye and my first born, you give me the prime minister role”) And how he’s taken his revenge on the country!

Wake up and smell the coffee (or tizer in your case, DES) – the guy is as crazy as a box of frogs!

SEBHFUAR

Of course using innuendo and amateur physicatric diagnoses about your opponent is low politics – and Guido knows this very well. When, I pointed out in a post on Guido’s blog that such speculation was from someone who was a former bankrupt and convicted criminal with a drink problem my comment was deleted pretty quickly – so Guido clearly doesn’t subscribe to the what is sauce for the goose view of life.

The more I look at modern Tory politics – the more it appears to mirror US Republican politics in teh run up to Dubya’s election – with Cameron/Osborne playing the cuddly social conservatism card while at the same time condoning a black operation to besmirch their opponents. It would be worth some digging to look at links between the right wing bloggers and CCHQ – some have made comments in the past about meeting with CCHQ and Guido seemed to know all about CCHQ mail servers and appears to be on the guest list for most of their events.

TBNGU

Give over….they are all the same…..I wouldn’t trust a politician from any side more than I could throw him/her/it.

Labour lies through its collective teeth.

The Tories will lie when they get into power.

And the LibDems will….well ….actually….WGAF what they will do cos it will never happen.

I am bemused by the CCHQ/Coulson black ops idea. Even sensible journalists ask me the same.

Fact after the email server hack they put yours truly in the penalty box for six months – no press office assistance / no press releases etc. Funnily enough the coverage was unhindered.

Anybody can go to Tory party conference, as Britain’s favourite political blogger I get a media pass, not a membership card.

Oh, by the way Maguire has joined the right-wing conspiracy of malicious innuendo – he asks in the New Statesman today “Is Gordon going crackers?” The fact is the question is being widely asked in Westminster.

Sunni, this meme is brilliant. You have stage-managed a slanging match between the Loony Left and the Rabid Right with little shit-stirring postings from yourself when things go off the boil. You have actually given the impression that only the Liberals are reasonable, an achievement which is truly amazing and should get you on Cleggy’s next honours list.
You’ve obviously learnt a lot from decades of reading right wingers starting and composing narratives. as has the liberal tendency in by-elections all over the UK. Of course, the Labour Party have never stooped so low- take Crew and Glasgow East for example.

Yoko. I have an IQ of 165. I can assure you that raw intelligence, effective intelligence and wisdom do not always go together

“what the political right excels at, is starting and constantly promoting malicious narratives”

Yes, unlike the left of course. Just what was Alistair Campbell doing all those years?

@tory boys never grow up

//. It would be worth some digging to look at links between the right wing bloggers and CCHQ – some have made comments in the past about meeting with CCHQ and Guido seemed to know all about CCHQ mail servers and appears to be on the gu
//

Who’s stopping you, Tory Boy? You are always coming up with this line – well, if it bugs you so much, why don’t you fuck off and do some research on it eh? You expecting someone else to do it on your behalf?

We await your report with baited breath.

Can someone get QuiteasmadasanApple and David Dumb from the Torygraph Blog Comment NuLiebore Staff to look at this? I would welcome their wisdom and insight LOL

Paul Staines has just switched comment moderation on (again), so now he can censor fair responses to his nonsense at his leisure (i.e. without is interrupting his regular afternoon drinking session).

What a coward.

What’s happened to your site, Tim?

I notice that Dizzy Thinks has also posted on your post.

Look, this thread, “Is Gordon Brown insane?” should have already moved on to,” Gordon Brown IS insane, WTF are we going to do about it?”

JB: The Julie Moult thing has fresh traffic coming in from all over the place. Site reliability has been a bit hit and miss all day as a result.

JHL: I note that Phil ‘Dizzy’ Hendren woke up so “shattered” this morning that he couldn’t blog anything. Certainly not because he was out all night drinking at the cock-fights with Paul Staines. Oh, goodness no. That would never happen.

Meanwhile, here’s Paul Staines assuring his readers that he fell over while minding the kids because he was “tired”:
http://www.order-order.com/2008/08/terror-attack-in-fawkes-household.html

The problem is that Brown is mental – a revelation first touted around by his colleagues from within Zanuliebore.

Sorry, and what was your point again Sunny? (Your blind loyalty to him is rather touching though.)

@Frank Fisher:

You have invoked Godwin’s Law and I claim my five pounds.

Is the QuestionThat at 48:

“This is rather reminiscent of the kind of attack politics used to such great effect by the right in the US. Trying to stem the tide is going to be futile, I predict.”

by any chance related to the QuestionThat at 127:

“LibCon contributors: “Bonkers” is an awful word, but if you’re trying to argue that Guido et al are wrong when they say that Gordon Brown has psychological issues, then you’re on a hiding to nothing, since he clearly does.”

No, no one is trying to suggest he doesn’t have psychological issues. I have psychological issues. You have psychological issues. Psychological issues however are not mental illness or autism, which is what Guido and others have been insinuating, and which is below the belt.

Yes, I see your point.

Perhaps Gordon is only pretending to be off his trolley.

Well it didn’t do Prescott any harm to pretend he was bulemic. It’s got him loads of airtime and telly work with the BBC.

Yes. Brown is ill. Perhaps like the Madness of King George, it is now treatable.

and by the way, why do other Socialists swear so much?

Heh. Someone over at Paul Staines’ weblog has noted my presence here and is expecting his hero ‘Guido’ to come charging in and take me on. Bless.

Septicisle: You say, “No, no one is trying to suggest he doesn’t have psychological issues. I have psychological issues. You have psychological issues.”

Well, thanks for the confession, and thanks for the diagnosis of me. Last time I looked, however, neither of us was running the country. Gordon Brown is trying, unsuccessfully, to do just that.

You go on to say, “Psychological issues however are not mental illness or autism, which is what Guido and others have been insinuating, and which is below the belt.”

As one of the “others” I have not been insinuating anything. I have stated that Brown is bonkers and suggested that he has Asperger’s. If these statements were really so absurd, no one would take any notice and I would have been ignored. The fact that you and a pile of frothing lefties jumped on the comments and created this enormous thread rather hints that you think your man is a bit of a loonbag as well. If someone posted that Vince Cable was psychotic it would not gain much traction, would it? And it is not below the belt to call a politician nuts until the men in white coats come to collect him. Not long now.

And to those who say it’s normal for politicians to be bonkers and anyway Churchill was too, I say it is more normal for them to be normal. And that’s the way I prefer my politicians. You will have a chance to vote for your nutter, or whichever pathetic successor they dig up, in a year or so, but you will be in a rapidly dwindling minority.

Pip pip.

In Asperger’s Disorder,there are impairments in two-sided social interaction and non-verbal communication. Though grammatical, their speech may sound peculiar due to abnormalities of inflection and a repetitive pattern. Clumsiness may be prominent both in their articulation and gross motor behavior. They usually have a circumscribed area of interest which usually leaves no space for more age appropriate, common interests

I am just getting on with the job…

I rest my case….!

At the risk of repeating myself (comment #1) – the first people publicly to point out Brown’s “flaws” were Blair/Campbell.

Now I don’t know whether he is “ill” or merely an incompetent foul-tempered disloyal control freak.

There isn’t a third option, is there?

At the risk of repeating myself (comment #1) – the first people publicly to point out Brown’s “flaws” were Blair/Campbell.

Ah, Messrs Reliability themselves. I always know to trust information from them.

I had never heard of TI before…who is he…. GF’s stalker??

Sorry, Laurie Penny, but Godwin’s Law is usually reserved for Hilter and/or Nazis… Frank was referencing Stalin (‘Man of Steel’ – as Neil referenced): a left-wing evil dictator.

Chas…
whatever else you might be saying, I’ve got to pull you up on this one – “and as for our armed forces, it is a disgrace and abomination.”
Our armed forces are very, very good and that is astounding considering the hateful manner in which the present administration continues to save a cheap quid by slashing the defense budget even while asking them to fight in two conflicts that a twelve-year-old could have told them would be prolonged.

And so Chas repeats the same spurious nonsense as before. Pip poop indeed.

“If someone posted that Vince Cable was psychotic it would not gain much traction, would it?”
If someone posted that he had delusions of grandeur it would. Know what I mean, that sort of clever ass smirky attitude he’s adopted since his Mr. B comment; but when his political life is over, that comment is all he’ll be remembered for.

Regarding Brown’s alleged being bonkers. Anyone who watched his confident performances as Chancellor wouldn’t have queried his mental health for a single second. He batted off those Tories like flies. But it’s hardly surprising that he’s on the back foot and become defensive, when since the non election every single word he’s said, move he’s made and facial expression has been belittled.

Still, some comfort for him and us to know that much as he’s hated by the likes of tagged bloggers, unchanged, unreformed nasty party supporters, and the HYS/Mail ex pats, he still holds all the cards, and can play them to his advantage, so suck on that.

“Still, some comfort for him and us to know that much as he’s hated by the likes of tagged bloggers, unchanged, unreformed nasty party supporters, and the HYS/Mail ex pats, he still holds all the cards, and can play them to his advantage, so suck on that.”

What goes around comes around……..we can wait..

Is the PM mad I do not know it is not an important issue Churchill was mad. Look at nero
Conchis was mad, and ill too used to engage in odd pracitices.

if i make a comment about religion will i be automatically called a racist?

Ok so we are now in agreement that the one eyed son of the Manse is nuts. Where do we go from here? Do we get him sectioned or do we encourage him to committ Harry Karry. I know which one I think is the better option (esp if televised).

It takes one to know one.

Yes it does take one to know one.

Thanks for agreeing. :

Eh!.

What is the article about I do not get it. Is this a serious article? There are loads of attention seeking bullying nutters on the internet who make up sick claims about people. It is part of the internet. When I here a tory creep making up creepy claims I think badly of therm. People like Conchis, Phil, Austropop, Chas are desperately attention seeking creeps. Do not bother about them. They are are strange strange people, who do not deserve the attention they want by their insults. :

My pleasure Bobby.

What on earth is a meme. And why are people getting insane about memes. :

A meme is an internet thing.

Re: Sunny @ 114
My question to this thread wasn’t about how nasty all this is. My point was to try and generate some discussion about how the left should respond.

I notice your post has proved the old adage about not wrestling with pigs. ie: You get muddy and the pigs enjoy it. But did you shed any light on how the left should respond?

I am a little bit bemused to see how you characterise the left as occupying some sort of higher moral ground, but then seem to relish (see your updates to the post) the same childish antics that Staines enjoys. If it really is despicable to characterise Brown as bonkers, then it must be equally despicable to do it to Staines. Am I missing something here, or does Brown perhaps occupy some sacred position that protects him from insults, but mortals such as Staines are fair game?

You dislike Staines, I dislike him too. But you’ve really missed the boat if you think you’ve found a way to defeat his nonsense by coordinating a group of bloggers to jump straight into the cesspool.

Reading this thread it’s amazing to see Brown’s transformation from madman to superman in a matter of weeks. I think the best response to these kind of attacks on your character is to counter them by getting on with your job and doing it well. Brown’s decisive actions in response to the economic crisis have done more to deflate the Tory taunts of “ditherer” than any amount of spin could have done. The increased confidence he now shows at Prime Minister’s Questions is telling. If he can keep this up for another eighteen months then the election is anyone’s to win.

Now, here’s a strange thing.

We have Simon Carr of the Independent today using just the same meme. [see http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/simon-carr/simon-carr-mr-keynes-funny-farm-a-bullock-outfoxes-the-fox-1023102.html%5D.

Well, I found it curious, anyway.

The man is clearly bipolar. Why else would he be so cheerful about the “difficult times”? Is it because he has bled the country dry during the good times and now he is going on yet another spending spree which he ludicrously calls “fiscal stimulus”? He lies as a matter of routine: for example, government debt is not 37% of GDP, as he so often asserts. He has repeated this lie so often recently that one is tempted to believe that he has started to believe it himself. He is either ‘an economic illiterate’ or he believes that we are. There is not one single thing that this government has “achieved” apart from Northern Ireland (n.b. with no involvement from GB). With Brown’s form, there is no chance whatsoever that any measures taken by him will have any other consequence than to make things worse. Lastly, the man is a total shit since he has not had the decency to attend the repatriation of a single fallen soldier from Afghanistan, while finding any amount of time for trivial PR stunts that might show him up in a good light.

The whole “mad Gordon” thing was begun by the Blairites. Knowing their idea of what a sane Prime Minister looks like, who’s going to trust their diagnosis?

Of course Mr Broon may be slightly delusional. “We have saved the World….!”

Of course there’s Tony Blar’s comments about his ex Chancellor…. something about the economy being run on…”Good luck rather than sound judgement…!” Even Blair has a measure of Brown’s little peculiararities….

Whether or not Mr Brown is so ever so slightly ‘Not quite there..’, but then so are many of us Earthlings out here. But we ain’t sat in Number 10 as Prime Mentalist runing the country…. Oh did I say ‘running’.. I meant ‘Ruining’

The sooner there is a General Eelction, the better. New Labour as a Government are obsessed with ‘Laws’. They have passed more ‘Laws’ than all previous Labour or Tory governments together in the past 40 or so years. New Labour under Blair, and now Gordon Brown, are truly obsessed, and suffer from a collective condition called ‘Legal Diarrhea’…..

The old ex Stazi apparachicks of old East Germany must be so delighted at the way the UK is being driven with all the anti-civil liberties legislation has been put in place over recent years.

All Gordon Brown, his ‘Minder’, Peter Lord Mandelson and other cabinet pals need to try and do now is to cancell all further elections, ban all political parties, abolish Parliament and announce themselves ‘In Office For Life’ just like dear old Uncle Bob Mugabwe.

Would they? Could they?… a mad scenario. Maybe. But could they really try and pull such a stunt? I for one do not trust any of them, and that is a sad state of affairs. Labour will be trounced at the next election just like they were in the 1970s after the Callaghan and Healey Labour administration — thats for sure!!

LOncle Vanya De Caesaromagus @ 11.28.

That translates as “Old Johnny of Chelmsford”. As for the eponymous character whose name Johnny has appropriated, it says here:
“the play’s misanthrope, he offers a number of humorous caricatures of those around him and is thus privileged with a certain bitter insight, though one that lacks the deliberation of Astrov.”

Quite frankly, this thread ran its course and out of any wit long since; and should be put out of its misery.