Assignment 2, article 1: What does your MP thinkof the PM

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is often up for discussion in pub politics. Every man and his dog seems to have an opinion on what Mr. Brown should (or shouldn’t) be doing.

I’m sure you have your own opinions on what you think of Mr. Brown, good and bad, but we don’t really know the full extent of what is going in within the internal workings of the labour party.

The people who do know tend to be labour MPs… and things aren’t looking so good in that respect. With Gordon Brown attempting to push through unpopular policies like 42 day detention, he is currently receiving a lot of dissent from the back benches.

Gordon Prentice, MP for Pendle has said "A prime minister needs a different set of skills from a chancellor of the exchequer. A prime minister must be able to persuade and enthuse. If not, the message is lost”. Mr. Prentice is just one of several MPs calling for Mr. Brown to step down, and a new leadership challenge to take place.

While Mr. Prentices views are not shared by all backbenchers, claims Tony Lloyd (chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party) however Mr. Lloyd does agree that Mr. Brown does need to sharpen his efforts.

On the other hand, senior cabinet members are rallying around him and saying that they think he is the right man to lead the party, despite the fact he was not the Prime Minister voted for by the electorate.

Home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said in a quote in the Independent that "Gordon Brown is proving himself as a prime minister in difficult times and should have the support of all of us." And other senior politicians like Bill Rammell (Higher Education minister) and Harriet Harman (the deputy leader).

Here is a map showing the different things that have been said by the different MPs:

View Larger Map

But is Mr. Brown unpopular with the electorate? I looked at popular social networking site, Facebook, to find out.

To find out popular opinion I did a search for groups with the term defined as “Gordon Brown”. On the first page of search results I found 7 groups who were against Gordon Brown, and not one in favour. The titles of the groups ranged from “I BET I CAN FIND 1,000,000 PEOPLE WHO DISLIKE GORDON BROWN” which has 15,931 members to “Gordon Brown - throw in the towel and resign” which has 1,140 members.

I did find one or two pro Gordon Brown groups, finding my first one on page four entitled “Gordon Brown for Prime Minister” which had 176 members and was quite old, pre Brown coming to power and the “Gordon Brown Appreciation Society” which has 105 members on page 6. Neither of these groups have the vast number of members that the anti Brown groups have.

So, Gordon Brown, losing popularity amongst his own party, minimal popularity amongst the voters and losing ground to other political parties… Not the best way to handle the growing unrest in this country.

(Picture Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/2297262080/)