It’s not been a good few days for… (UPDATED)

Variants on the question “Is Gordon Brown finished?” continue to dominate much political commentary, with The Guardian running a fascinating first-hand account of what it’s like working with him:

When Gordon Brown used to hold meetings at the Treasury, coffee would be served with the milk already added. I always thought that summed up his style. Such was his eagerness to get on to business that he had no time for the 20 seconds it would take to pass round the jug and the biscuits, a ritual that broke the ice across the rest of Whitehall.

The pieces goes on to detail many aspects of working with Brown, including the government by temper tantrum approach that seems so popular amongst much of his camp. Well worth a read.

Meanwhile, The Week magazine rather pithily sums up Brown’s indecision, drawing on an account in the Financial Times:

He raised expectation of an election, then called it off. He signed the Lisbon Treaty but skipped the ceremony, thereby annoying everyone. He received the Olympic flame at No.10, but refused to touch it. British troops in Iraq are holed up at Basra airport – both staying and withdrawing.

Although it’s not that uncommon for a politician to be told that what they’ve said is all “lies, lies, lies”, it is a bit unusual for it to be the Labour leader of a council making the comments and directing them at his council colleagues. Jonathan Wallace has the story.

To round off the list, Labour MP Rob Marris has been arrested by the police over the manner in which he appears to have boarded a bus. But in the spirit of political balance, I should also point out that former Conservative Minister Rod Richards has also been arrested over allegations that he punched a canvasser.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, in Liverpool a Labour councillor (Ben Williams) has been charged with downloading indecent pictures of children from the internet. UPDATE 2: Ben Williams was subsequently tried and acquitted.