Surprise, Surprise
I once read somewhere that we males have inferior brain capacity compared with females. In other words, men can concentrate on only one or two issues at hand, whereas women can successfully absorb many more.
It may explain the Prime Minister’s brain. He was a very dominant and focused Chancellor of the Exchequer, a view widely held even by those who disagreed with his policies. George Osborne was considered brave to take him on.
The words dominant and focused could not now be applied to him as Prime Minister. The chaotic muddle surrounding the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill says it all. On Friday we heard Health Minister Ben Bradshaw on the radio backing the Bill with no qualifications. It took a few senior Roman Catholic clerics in the next 36 hours to get Health Secretary Alan Johnson to change tack. It now appears that Labour MPs may abstain but not vote against the Bill, so we have moved on, sort of…
It is truly astonishing that the Prime Minister did not see the religious reactions inevitably coming. Now, having taken a robust stance in defence of the Bill, there appears to be some wavering. It is bizarre to be challenging the parliamentary convention that MPs should be able to vote on ethical issues according to their consciences or religious views.
So the impression is yet again being formed that the Prime Minister has lost his political touch, and is vacillating in consequence.
He once paraded Margaret Thatcher outside 10 Downing Street, and praised her as a conviction politician. It is increasingly clear that it is not an apt description of him at all.
Whether it has anything to do with male versus female brains is one thing, but whatever the reason, the shambles surrounding the Bill simply fortifies the view that Gordon Brown is rapidly losing the plot. It wasn’t meant to be like this, but assuredly it is.
As Cilla Black would say “surprise, surprise.”