'THINGS CAN only get better" was New Labour's famous election-winning anthem. But it is currently difficult to divine any road to recovery for the man who pushed so hard to replace Tony Blair as British prime minister. Many people were "up for Portillo" on that famous night in 1997 when John Major's ailing administration was finally expelled from office.
Memories linger of the emotional scenes on London's South Bank where the likes of Peter Mandelson and John Prescott joined in the singing and celebration as the dawn broke over Blair's Britain.
It all ended in tears, of course. A year ago, and before he wished to stand down, Mr Blair finally made way for his friend-turned-increasingly-bitter-rival amid allegations of sleaze and against the continuing backdrop of party and national division over the war in Iraq. Yet to the surprise of many, having granted Blair three successive election victories, the British public showed themselves still resistant to the Conservatives and inclined to allow Labour the chance to renew itself in office.
Sensing the opportunity presented by his unopposed election as Labour leader, Gordon Brown cast himself as the agent of change. He signalled distance from Blair and the "old politics" of "spin" with the promise of an enhanced democracy, greater respect for civil liberties increasingly endangered by the exigencies of the fight against international terrorism, an honest dialogue with the people reaching beyond considerations of mere party, and a sense of purpose at home and abroad driven by the strong "moral compass" nurtured in the Scottish Manse of his upbringing. "I have heard the need for change," he declared on the steps of Number 10, invoking his school motto and promising to do his utmost.
The British public appeared to like what they saw, and what they heard. As Brown and Labour's poll ratings soared through a summer of crises, some left-leaning commentators even allowed themselves to believe British voters could come to prefer the somewhat dour, intensely private Scot after the years of Blair celebrity. It was a fancy waiting to be shattered by the sharp discovery that "the end of spin" was Brown's new spin.
"Not flash, just Gordon" the posters proclaimed at the September conference during which Brown allowed the speculation to build that he would seek his own mandate in a snap general election. He need not have been fatally wounded by the subsequent retreat in face of mixed polling evidence casting doubt on the size of Labour's majority in a new House of Commons. However, Brown lost his claim to "trust" when he tried to suggest the polls had not been the determining factor. The result - evidenced by the opinion polls and in real contests in Crewe and Nantwich and, last Thursday, in Henley - is that the voters are no longer listening to him.
Mr Brown needs to be heard, and the British people must hope that he can guide them through the current global economic downturn. Should he prove the man to do so, he would have made a strong claim for another term. Unless he can recover trust, however, even that might not be enough.