brown drowning - schmoo to the rescue

•• A YouGov poll yesterday in The Sunday Times put Conservative support at 45 per cent, with Labour on 32 and the Liberal Democrats on 14. ••• Gordon Brown's personal rating has fallen from a favourable 48 per cent in August to 39 in September, to 30 in October, to minus 10 in November, and to minus 26 this month. •••• If the latest YouGov figures were to occur at a general election, the Conservatives would win 374 seats, Labour 227 and the Lib Dems 19. ••••• Suggestions are circulating within Labour that Brown could be gone after the next council elections in May 08, or maybe before to save seats (they said that about Blair too). •••••• Miliband obvious successor, but that could be a disadvantage.

TAXABLE SUNSHINE: IT just gets worse and worse for Gordon Brown, but schmoo to the rescue thinks the end is not neigh; the end is 2010. In the meantime anything can happen in the next half hour. Labour is in very choppy waters, but a lot of very good policies are being put into effect, and despite the dire effects of climate change, the captain is steering a steady course towards safer, friendlier media waters, hopefully to bask in taxable sunshine.

Polls? What polls? Why can't anyone see that Gordon Brown is doing the very best he can in difficult circumstances, just like he promised. He is sailing forward against the wind, despite serious damage to the rigging caused by several terrible storms in a row, and rotten ropes. One bad thing: although he should have checked the ropes, Brown has been trying to avoid responsibility. Instead of coming clean, Brown has been blaming the rot on the previous captain, the brilliant and controversial Tony Blair,. Much missed for his wit by big sections of the crew, Blair 'did the right thing' and took early retirement, leaving in a cloud of well earned cash from speaking engagements.

Brown Down: Potentially more damaging for Brown are the consequences of decisions for which he is 100% responsible. There is the tiresome (for Brown) story, dredged up by John Major who let Black Wednsday happen, about how Gordon Brown sold off Britain's gold reserves at the worst possible moment. Brown sold exactly when gold was at it's lowest price, causing a huge loss to the nation. Ever since the price of gold has spiraled ever upwards at an accelerating rate, in the direction of heaven. And then he sold one of the most important bits of Britain's defense industry to the Americans at a fraction of it's value.

Apart from his well known nail biting and nose picking afflictions, Brown may also be suffering from a rare but extreme form of 'Computer Compulsion': he routinely wastes hundreds of millions of pounds on control freak computer systems that don't work.

But worse of all: like the worst kind of credit card binger, Gordon Brown has tied the national kitty to very expensive loans for years to come in dodgy deals with loan sharks and 'House of Horrors' builders. His spendaholic 'PFI' deals mean that every new project costs more in interest payments than the most expensive store card on Oxford St; thats expensive. And so is getting all that cool stuff from iwantoneofthosenukes.com .

Add all the above to the 27 billion bail out for Northern Rock to stop a run on all the banks, the danger of which Gordon Brown may have been warned of a year ago. Add into the mix a quarter of British mortgage holders being considered 'high risk', and another quarter classed as 'sub-prime', which equals half. Then add over a trillion pounds personal debt, inflation, flooding, airport taxes, ever rising fuel & food prices ....... the damage is huge.

Choppy waters? Air Strip Britain is facing a gathering storm, that could turn into an epic, warpforce 10 hurricane at any moment.

The truth ignored by 45% of the country who now say they support the Tories, enough for a landslide election victory, is that Gordon Brown really is getting on with the job of doing the best he can for the country. Brown's problem is that trying to do your best is no excuse for failure, especially catastrophic failure.

The Brown Tragedy is that it increasingly looks like he is a good man trying his best, turning into a dead man walking. That's why schmoo supports Gordon Brown all the way - including when it is time to go.

• Labour Election Victory in Croydon: CroydonLife is reporting a surprise advance for Labour in a Croydon Council by election last week, when the Labour candidate Alison Butler not only held her seat, but also increased her majority. A good example of how YouGov polls may say one thing, but on the day YouVoters decide.