Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Cliche Watch

What the pundits say about Brown's exit:

Kevin Maguire-"Nothing became him as the manner of his leaving"

Donald Macintyre- "Appropriately perhaps it's a line from the Scottish play that may act as his epitaph – political rather than actual, of course – that "nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it". "

Daniel Hannan- "For once, the word “tragedy” is exactly apposite. I have laboured the Brown/Macbeth parallel so often as to try the patience of every reader of this blog, but it is appropriate to close by quoting that play one more time: “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it”. "

Jackie Ashley- "Nothing became him so much as the manner of his going."


The thing is though, the cliche doesn't even apply, his exit has been entirely in character with everything else he has done- cynical, tribal and graceless.

10 comments:

JuliaM said...

Not to mention the fact that he hasn't actually left yet!

Mark Wadsworth said...

The cliché I'd use is "He hung around like a bad smell".

banned said...

And Fake, like most things Nu Labour.

Matthew said...

It's delicious, most of the media have been demanding his resignation since he took over, and now he has said he is going they are declaring it shameful, and squalid and so on.

One imagines if David Cameron has to wait at a pedestrian crossing for it to change to the green man a lot of these journalists would start pennning pompous attacks on the red man. Or perhaps Gordon Brown.

Yaffle said...

...and two of the four hacks didn't bother to get the quote right.

Yaffle said...

...perhaps because the original quote is about death, so isn't even that apposite. He isn't actually dead.

Umbongo said...

Matthew

He hasn't resigned: he's staying on as PM and intends (he says) to resign as leader of the Labour Party. He may resign as PM in October when a new Labour leader might be selected (and confirmed) at the Labour Party Conference. I don't think though that he's completely ruled out standing for leader either: certainly if the LibDems suck Labour cock (or is it vice versa?) and create a "progressive" coalition Brown will be persuaded after a few months that he's irreplaceable and sacrifice himself to remain at no. 10.

You're right though in one sense: it is delicious because Brown has demonstrated what rank amateurs Cleggie and Cameron are in the business of politics.

Matthew said...

I didn't say he had resigned, I said 'he has said he is going'. And he has.

Richard said...

None of the hacks got the quote right (the leaving it, not the leaving of it).

I don't buy the Macbeth analogy. Brown was Coriolanus (and this is why).

Ross said...

There isn't really an excuse for butchering a quote in the age of the internet is there?