Liberal Burblings

There’s been an interesting debate about Gordon Brown and the flimsily supported allegation that he may take anti-depressants. This is worrying, say protagonists of the “Is Brown bonkers?” school of thought. Actually, it would be more worrying if, assuming that he may have a problem, he were not taking anti-depressants, if prescribed by his doctor.

“Could his judgment be impaired?” ask some.

Well, I would say that virtually every PM may have had her or his judgment impaired by something going on his private life. Just go back to John Major. In 1997 he had to decide when to have a general election. It was up in the air as to whether it would be early in year or on May 1st (as it was in the end). Edwina Currie, then an MP, came on the telly, I remember, and said that it would be awful if the election was early in the year because it would mean that retiring MPs, such as her, would miss a cut-off to do with their retirement package.

It later transpired that Major and Currie had earlier had a four-year affair. It seems valid to ask: Was John Major’s judgment on the date of the election in any way influenced by the strident views of his former mistress on the subject?

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