Is Opposition Allowed?

Gordon Brown is now growing into his Private Eye caricature as a Stalinist who views opposition and dissent as being forms of treason. Just consider some of the behaviour of the government in November so far:

• Attacking the Tories for asking questions about the death of Baby P under the noses of Haringey social services.
• Making an absurd claim that it was a breach of protocol to warn about a run on the pound.
• Organising heckling squads to prevent the Conservatives discussing the Pre-Budget Report in parliament.
• Arresting a shadow minister,using anti-terrorism police, for crime of obtaining information that embarrasses the government.

This has all happened since the return of Peter Mandelson and more importantly Alistair Campbell to the government. Gordon Brown's psychological flaws have been discussed before but when he is in cahoots with Alistair Campbell whose mental health problems have been well documented and has a history of abusing office to try and discredit opponents of the government (David Kelly, Black Rod & Rose Addis spring to mind) then a worrying trend is evident. One paranoid man mught be able to curb his instincts, if surrounded by balanced individuals, but two together will egg each other on to ever greater depths of derangement.

Their own mental health is their private concern but the fact that they are at the helm of the country during a crisis is deeply disturbing.