Take a second look at Brown’s behaviour

The Prime Minister has denied that he has ever hit anyone.

Speaking in an interview on Channel 4 News, Mr Brown said:

 ”Let me just say, absolutely clearly, so that there is no misunderstanding about that: I have never, never hit anybody in my life.”

I fully believe the Prime Minister’s assurances, particularly since nobody has ever suggested that he did hit anyone.

The allegations against him are all of violent outbursts that stop short of actually throwing a punch.  They are repeated in today’s Observer and include:

• grabbing his deputy chief of staff by the lapels and snarling: “They’re out to get me”;
• thumping the back of the front passenger seat while travelling in his official car, causing his protection officer to flinch with shock;
• stabbing the same (presumably now reupholstered) seat with a black marker pen;
• screaming four-letter words at his American speechwriter;
• employing similar vocabulary when irate at the prospect of meeting European ambassadors; and
• turfing a No 10 typist out of her seat and taking over her computer.

The Observer now tells us that Brown’s conduct toward his staff was so bad that the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, was obliged  to give him a stern “pep talk” and order him to change his behaviour.

If these allegations are indeed true, they must give huge cause for concern as to the Prime Minister’s fitness for office. I sincerely hope that they are not, but they should be answered as part of the process of “taking a second look” at the way Mr Brown has governed our country.