By Daniel Hannan –
On Tuesday, I was one of those few. The Prime Minister was in the European Parliament, trying to persuade the rest of the EU to react to the financial crisis in the way that he has, viz by fire-hosing cash at it. I was one of the eight MEPs who got to respond, and was given three minutes to make my point.
According to convention, Mr Brown had to remain in his place while I spoke. Right, I thought, for once you’re going to have to listen to what people are saying. The country was in negative equity, I said; the weight of his debt would press down on our children yet unborn and unbegot, I said; surely he could see that his bail-outs and nationalisations had failed, I said; we should stop throwing good money after bad, I said.
No doubt you can imagine how Mr Brown reacted; you might have watched him do it week after week at Prime Minister’s Questions. He chatted ostentatiously to his neighbours; he pretended to doodle; he pulled his face into that grin that makes us think of the cold glint of moonlight on a silver coffin plate. Not for the first time, it struck me that the PM won’t listen to criticism.