The BBC’s Andrew Marr asked Gordon Brown in an interview on Sunday whether he has been prescribed medication to help him cope with the pressures of his job (see Guardian article). Most people would not be surprised or concerned that indeed he was taking medication, after all he is in a very hard and pressurised job and there are very good medical solutions around to help one in five of us through the day. I think you’d need more than the odd single malt or paracetamol to get through the sort of day that GB normally has. We would have some sympathy.
However, what is more difficult to swallow is evasion or denial of such treatment. Nevertheless the Labour spin machine is in full denial mode on this. If it ever transpired that Brown is taking medication after all then the damage to his political health would be life endangering and irreversable.
In the film the Matrix, Morpheus offers Neo the choice of the blue pill or the red pill. If this was UK politics, the red pill would be another dosage of NuLiebour whilst the blue pill represents a purgatory dose of Toryism. What fantasy does the brown pill offer?
Note. Neo chooses the red pill and subsequently finds himself naked in a liquid-filled pod, his body connected by wires and tubes to a vast mechanical tower covered with identical pods.
