Gordon Brown Losing His Eyesight
Not only has British Prime Minister Gordon Brown lost his political skills, aides close to the Labor leader say he is also losing his eyesight. According to these staffers, Brown can only read reports and articles when printed in big letters and his aides need to help him out on a variety of public occasions.
Some of Brown’s friends say that the situation has become so bad that he could lose his eyesight completely if he bumps into an obstacle causing his already damaged retina to fail completely.
Brown himself admitted in an interview recently: “It does mean when you’re speaking to an audience you automatically tend to correct [which direction to look in] so you’ve got to be careful. If you’re reading something you have to look slightly to the side.”
Damian McBride, Mr Brown’s chief spin doctor was quoted as saying: “His sight isn’t very good.”
One senior official said that if he sends the Prime Minister an e-mail he makes sure it is “in at least 36 point.” Normal articles are published in a five times smaller print.
Not only does Brown have difficulty reading, he was reportedly also almost lost on stage recently. He could not see the exit, and wandered around, not knowing where to go. His aides had to come get him.
“You can’t understand Gordon if you don’t understand his fear that he could go blind at any moment,’ one friend said. “In public Gordon puts on a heroic performance, but there is always a cost.”
The news could very well result in Brown gaining some sympathy from the public at large, but it could also cause him to lose support politically. After all, Brown is not doing well in the polls, with many people believing Brown to be an incompetent Labor leader and PM. A physical weakness to add to his weaknesses would be exactly the opposite of what Brown needs. In the end, citizens want their leaders to be strong and competent, not weak and incompetent.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
The strong thing is the old narrative, and there are usually attempts to cover it up. Consider FDR’s polio, and now Brown’s eyesight.
Though, sometimes politicians are quite upfront about it, mostly because they have to be. Take Gov. David Patterson of New York. And his approval ratings are decent, at least they were in August.