Brown humiliated

HARSH? Yes. Fair? Far more than fair.

Gordon Brown looked on his knees in the Commons at lunchtime. He has been forced into bailing out one of his key policies, the abolition of the 10p tax rate, because he had totally miscalculated the effect it would have on some of the lowest paid workers in the UK.

No one doubts that Brown has taken a million or more children out of poverty by his fiscal policies during the past 11 years. But his Budget last year nearly destroyed all that good work, and what's more he failed to acknowledge that until he realised that he was in danger from losing a crucial vote next Monday on this year's Finance Bill. 

I sat above the Prime Minister during the 30 minutes of exhanges. Looking at the Conservative benches, their MPs give the impression that after years in the wildernss, they at last believe that this Government is there for the taking.

The Prime Minister cannot be enjoying the experience of power. At every turn, he seems to be miscaluclating. His own backbenchers, relieved that he had bought off a rebellion, made enough noise supporting him in the chamber to sound if they meant it.

But David Cameron, king of the putdowns, really struck home when he shouted across the floor: "Labour's finally worked out, it has a loser not a leader." That must have really hurt.