I was astonished at how quickly the media snapped into action over the weekend to criticise Gordon Brown’s decision not to call for an early election.
And how pathetic did the Conservative supporters look dressed up as Newcastle Brown Ale - chanting the words “Bottler Brown”, among others in the general direction of government offices to heckle the prime minister. “How very clever we are,” they must have thought to themselves as they merrily sang: 'Ten Brown Bottles'.
If only they had known, their kids would have been so proud. I can only imagine what a conversation back at the family home might have sounded like: “Look nana, dad is on the tele dressed as an, um, er a bottle of Brown stuff.” I was secretly hoping for a large bowling ball to skittle them over when I saw them standing there, especially after England’s euphoric display against the Wallabies at the Rugby World Cup during roughly the same time.
Anyway, I suspect the media’s vigour to persecute Brown in such haste has something to do with the fact that his decision denies them from running so many hundreds of political pages for months to come.
Beware the power of the media is perhaps a moral that Brown can take away from this episode.
And further media muscle flexing shows them to continue to have access to government reports days before they are released, even post Tony Blair.
Practically every national daily paper continues to run stories where the final sentence reads: “A government minister will say.”
So I say, get the oil, the fake tan and put on a gold budgie smuggler because Brown is competing against Arnold Schwarzenegger when it comes to the media.
