It's the new Gordon McFluffy
Peter Rhodes writes: This was not the stern grey son of the manse whom the Scots call the Great Broon.
writes: This was not Old Gordon, dourly peddling prudence like a workhouse master doling out cold porridge.See also:
This was Gordon McFluffy, a Chancellor-lite, bidding for the nation's heart, soul and sense of humour.
This week Gordon Brown was accused of Stalinist tendencies by a former top civil servant.
How to respond? A born comedian (Blair, perhaps) would have opened his Budget speech with the simple word "Comrades." It would have brought the House down.
As it was, Brown used the Comrade line but only later in his speech. He doesn't do humour properly. Not yet.
But he comes across warmer and cuddlier than before. He looks tanned and healthier.
And if you want to appear healthy there is no better gambit than to be seen next to the collapsed pile of greasy inner tubes that we know as John Prescott.
The Chancellor sounds different, too, which is bound to stir the old speculation: has he been at the elocution classes to Anglicise his Scottish burr?
What else could account for his "proorities" which turned out to be "priorities" with the vowels seemingly plumped up for the English ear?
This is neither English nor Scottish but Sconglish. And the message was simple. All is well. Employment is soaring, tax receipts have never been higher and Britain is leading the world.
Only a cynic would ask our Sconglish purse-holder how come, if the nation is booming, he wants more tax instead of less.
Coiffed, confident and desperate to get into Number 10, the man from Number 11 delivered his 11th budget and produced some 11th hour rabbits which, if experience is any guide, will probably turn out to be rats by the morning.
Remember his promise of zero road tax a couple of years ago? Turned out it applied to one car which was no longer manufactured and another which you can't buy in the UK.
Tomorrow, exactly how many carbon-neutral homes will qualify for the Chancellor's much-vaunted zero stamp duty? One? None?
But then by tomorrow we will all have moved on.
The Chancellor will be focusing on the Scottish elections in May.
Watch out for a tightening of the vowels, a fading of the tan and a return of the burr as Gordon McFluffy turns into the Great Broon and heads north.
