Comments on Obsolete: Going lower than ever thought possible.

don't confuse depression with stark raving lunacyC...

2008-09-02T16:31:00.000+01:00

don't confuse depression with stark raving lunacy

Churchill may have suffered from depression ( who can blame him when what he forsaw between the wars what was going to happen) but that does not make you unfit to govern. Brown is unfit for office because he is a bully, misleads parliament, goes missing when the shit hits the fan and takes credit where none is due.

Depressives and manic depressives, Churchill Stephen Fry etc can be great fun - fantastists like Brown are dangerous

Elby: I'm pretty certain that I didn't call Anders...

2008-08-29T14:48:00.000+01:00

Elby: I'm pretty certain that I didn't call Anderson "bonkers" or anything approaching it. His behaviour while drunk has been well documented.

Yakoub,Another blog also quoted the parent of an a...

2008-08-29T13:09:00.000+01:00

Yakoub,

Another blog also quoted the parent of an autistic young man, who said that Brown reminded him of his son to a remarkable degree.

No - I agree. I strongly dislike it - whoever's d...

2008-08-29T10:05:00.000+01:00

No - I agree. I strongly dislike it - whoever's doing it, it's not party-political. It's lazy thinking and unpleasant.

That said, I would also say that specific allegations of mental illness are much worse than accusations of being a bit odd. A lot of politicians, 'mad' or not, seem odd, from John Redwood to Richard Body. Whether you include Gordon Brown in *that* category is a matter of opinion. What it isn't, and shouldn't be, is any sort of critique of him as Prime Minister.

Ok, so it is NOT OK to call Brown bonkers, but it ...

2008-08-29T08:29:00.000+01:00

Ok, so it is NOT OK to call Brown bonkers, but it IS OK to call Bruce Anderson bonkers? I read you correctly, yes? So Mr. Anderson is bonkers to call Brown bonkers?

Odd. Strange value set.

As a parent of a child with autism and a former au...

2008-08-29T07:20:00.000+01:00

As a parent of a child with autism and a former autism teacher, I find the use of autism/AS to 'describe' Gordon Brown both absurd and offensive. The unemployment rate for both groups is over 90%, and will continue to be so as long as the terms are bandied about as terms of abuse.

Tim: I would have condemned both of those remarks...

2008-08-29T00:58:00.000+01:00

Tim: I would have condemned both of those remarks at the time. I'm not being party political here, despite attempts to paint it that way; what I loathe is politicians and others resorting to lazy smears, which is what this is. I condemned the recent comments by Andy Burnham about David Davis, which was another lazy smear, in which I also mentioned another New Labour smear against David Kelly: http://www.septicisle.info/2008/06/david-likes-shami.html

It looks like you don't like them much either, judging by your response over at Jamie's.

Casillis: is it really perfectly reasonable? It's one thing to describe someone as deluded, or becoming corrupted by power, it's quite another to allege outright mental illness or autism.

As for the sheer volume and frequency of allegations - again, is it really so overwhelming? We've had, what, an article from Robert Harris, a Blair confidant, which mentioned Asperger's and had long called for Blair to sack him, an article from Bruce Anderson, known for his gluttony and far from creditable behaviour while drunk, George Osborne, who thought it hilarious to refer to Gordon Brown in connection with autism and whom rumours of copious drug use swirl around, and that old jibe possibly from Alastair Campbell, himself a sufferer from depression, or possibly from Peter Mandelson, who went round spreading rumours that Brown was gay when he certainly wasn't of "psychological flaws" - I have psychological flaws and I'm more than happy to admit that. All the rest is Guido's imagined whisperers and sources, as bad as any other journalist's anonymous sources.

This is a bit disingenous - the sheer volume and f...

2008-08-28T15:05:00.000+01:00

This is a bit disingenous - the sheer volume and frequency of allegations about Brown's character means they can't just be ignored.

Clearly Guido and others will exaggerate and make the most of this but it's equally silly to dismiss it all out of hand. His answers to questions are sometimes so bizzare that wondering about his mental state is perfectly reasonable....

Or Blair's description of William Hague as 'weird,...

2008-08-28T14:33:00.000+01:00

Or Blair's description of William Hague as 'weird, weird, weird'?

Or the dismissal of Mo Mowlam as being mentally affected by her brain tumour?

I'm reminded of the vilification of Tony Benn in t...

2008-08-27T20:20:00.000+01:00

I'm reminded of the vilification of Tony Benn in the 80s. I can't remember the paper (possibly The sun) but it had one of those 10 reasons why.....pieces of crap.
Its reasons why Wedgie was a loony included being a distant relative of a murderer (along with Margaret rutherford), drinking lots of tea and having a tilted head.

leaving politics to one side, I think there is still a widespread belief that mental illness should be treated by pulling yourself together.

The Churchill comparison is sensible. If GB did ha...

2008-08-27T11:15:00.000+01:00

The Churchill comparison is sensible. If GB did have some kind of mental illness - and I'm not saying he does - then wouldn't that just make him a lot like a significant minority of the population... the kind of people who are quite capable of being tremendous successes in their jobs and family life despite all that?

It's this sort of shite that forces people underground to hide their problems - Charles Kennedy is a good example.

Maybe we should start casting aspersions about Gui...

2008-08-27T10:32:00.000+01:00

Maybe we should start casting aspersions about Guido's propensity for alcohol?

His capacity for it coupled with his juvenile 'look at me everybody, I was completely pissed last night' proclamations hint at deep-seated problems...