Being Himself

Multiple signs of concern among the top echelons of the Labour party about Gordon's performance. Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Justice, and arguably the safest pair of hands in the Labour high command, has admitted that David Cameron’s campaign is “resonating” with the public and warns that the government must “adapt” if it is to keep power.

Tessa Jowell, Olympics minister, has also called on the Prime Minister to be “authentic”, true to himself and to Labour’s values, saying that there is no quick fix to restore the government’s battered standing.

David Miliband has also put his own two pennyworth in, urging Gordon to counter the perception that he has "run out of steam" and "lost the will to fight".

Jowell's advice to Gordon is amazingly blunt. Conceding that Gordon is not the most attractive of personalities, she advises him to "be himself" and accept that people will not necessarily like him:

"What people want in modern leaders is to know them, not necessarily to like them, to feel that they want to go on holiday with them, but to know them, to know their frailties, their strengths, what they like about them, what they don't like about them, to understand their attitudes and core beliefs."

The problem with Gordon, however, is that he usually is "being himself" and it is all really pretty unattractive. Consider, for example, his New Year message to the British people. I won't cherrypick extracts, but will let you read it here. To say that it is wooden, turgid and boring is grossly to understate its awfulness. There is not a single shred of humanity in its whole 1,057 words. Nothing to inspire, nothing to motivate, nothing to enthuse. It is, as Tony Blair might have said, just clunking.

And it is that clunkiness that makes it extraordinary unlikely that Gordon will ever win the hearts of the people of this country, no matter how much Straw, Jowell and Miliband try to talk him up.

He is, after all, just being himself.