Roy Greenslade says most it. Even Mrs Janes brother has sympathy for Gordon. Mind you, if sympathy turns to pity, Im not sure it does him any good. ITVs 10 OClock News last night best exposed the flaws in Gordon that dog him constantly- the ability to come clean immediately and admit mistakes in full. Bad as his writing is, it seems clear to me he did misspell Mrs Janes. and altered Jamie Yet he refused to admit it. It was the small things that made Mrs Janes snap, rather than her harrowing belief rightly or wrongly that her son bled to death when he might have been saved. For Gordon the rot began in 2007 when he refused to admit he bottled an election because a few polls were bad. People see through the reflexive lies and smell the weakness. Coming a bit cleaner as he did in his monthly news conference though still not fully will serve him better. Was he responsible for denying the army enough helicopters to save money or did the whole establishment, generals included, fail to realise the extent of the commitment until too late, making Gordon the fall guy? I still don’t know.
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London