All too human

Does all this add up to proof,as some commentators maintain,that Mr Brown has a suspect character,or at least the wrong sort for a prime minister? Mr Brown himself seems to subscribe to the Attlee/Field view of leadership,incessantly advertising the morality imbued by his upbringing,and recently declaring that his life was an 8220;open book8221;. But must character traits and defects really define or disable a prime minister?

Mr Brown does seem to be one of those people who avow love for humanity in general,but can seem less enamoured of individual human beings. He does indeed have a bad temper and tantrums; no one close to him seriously pretends otherwise even if some also say he and Downing Street are happier now than for much of his ill-starred premiership. 8220;Awkward8221;,8221;volatile8221; and 8220;irruptive8221; are among the adjectives applied to him by his allies.

But pondering his office,and its previous incumbents,it is plain that some characteristics that might be off-putting in a friend can prove necessary or even virtuous in Downing Street. Tony Blair,for instance,was impressively self-controlled: in a telling passage in the book by Jonathan Powell about the Northern Ireland peace process,Mr Blair reprimands his aide for losing his rag in a meeting,explaining that he himself only does so for calculated reasons. But Mr Blair also exhibited qualities 8212; the ruthlessness to sack his friends sometimes twice; the coldness to make life and frequently death decisions and evince no doubt that in other contexts might be unappealing.

Other prominent examples confirm that the character of politicians cannot always be appraised using everyday criteria; and that niceness and moral rectitude are not,in fact,make-or-break qualifications for prime ministers. There have been other irascible ones,boozers Churchill was both,womanisers Lloyd George and tyrants even if Margaret Thatcher was kind to secretaries and drivers. There is a view among some psychologists that aspiring to lead is itself a sort of personality disorder; it is not surprising that those afflicted by it display other symptoms too.

In Mr Brown8217;s case,it isn8217;t only his temper. He is dangerously workaholic,sometimes indecisive,and he struggles to delegate. A lifetime in politics has enthralled him to its machinations and short-termism though he also possesses an almost superhuman resilience,which has helped him to withstand the serial meltdowns and coups of the past few years. These traits may indeed help to explain some of his government8217;s failings,if they mean he intimidates his staff and wastes his own energy. Perhaps his alleged propensity to throw mobile phones and punch car seats is somehow connected to Britain8217;s gargantuan deficit and the severe recession he has presided over.

Or perhaps it isn8217;t. History suggests that sometimes bad manners and habits are destructive; sometimes they are not. And ultimately it is the facts of the deficit and recession that matter,not rumours of hurled phones and stapled hands,etc; it is the record,not the irruptions. If Mr Brown8217;s record were better,people would probably be less interested in his mood swings.

God save the prime minister

Oddly,this brouhaha could redound to Mr Brown8217;s advantage. And not only because of the distracting intervention of the head of an anti-bullying charity: she claimed that Downing Street staff had called its helpline,but was then mercilessly discredited herself,undermining the Observer by association. Mr Brown often comes across as an unsympathetic automaton; tales of his frailties may help to humanise him no one8217;s perfect,and all that. But if there is a serious revelation here,it has probably not been about Mr Brown8217;s character,but rather the crucifying character of his job and the inefficiency of the government machinery.

8220;Life is more complicated and government more complex,8221; Attlee observed in 1960; 8220;the Welfare State has required additional laws and regulations.8221; He didn8217;t know the half of it. Being prime minister today involves more responsibility,over a more centralised government,exercised in a more punishing media culture and more adversarial political one,than was imaginable even in the 1980s. A prime minister must discharge these responsibilities from the endearing but hopelessly amateurish surroundings of an adapted terraced house; like other prime ministers,Mr Brown has fiddled with the seating plan,but no one has yet created the modern and efficient executive that the role demands. It is enough to make anyone chuck the odd Nokia.