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If Mr Brown thought the recession would be his saviour, that faith in ill winds blowing good looks pretty shaky now.
The first person to slip into "depression thinking" was not Ed Balls but his boss. A habit of "misspeaking" has gripped the PM, first in his claim to have saved the world, later in condemning it to relive the Thirties.
The Prime Minister does have a conceptual grip - as much as anyone - on what is to be done to address a global crisis. His communication skills, alas, are strained by it.
Decades of experience of Labour in-fighting and years of fighting for the top job give him an accurate grasp of his position. Peter Mandelson, who is the trusted expert in delivering bad news, has been brought back, not least to ensure that the inner circle is not peopled by sycophants.
Mr Mandelson is not a man to bury bad news. On one occasion recently, he gave a long and spirited account of how fraught Labour's position was. "Gordon was just sitting there, taking it all in quite meekly and making notes," says a witness.
The PM seeks refuge in the belief that his management of the crisis will give him a "fighting chance" (as one close aide puts it) at the next election. Note how the tone at the heart of Government has changed from the improbability of a Tory win to the very contingent nature of a Labour one.
His own ranks, meanwhile, have exhibited behaviour to make the Gadarene swine look like models of sober calculation.
First they thought he was great in the summer bounce of 2008. Then they muttered that he was rubbish in the autumn doldrums. Then he was great again when he recapitalised the banks. Then he wasn't when the polls dropped in this unwelcoming new year. And so on.
One of the Cabinet figures who was keenest to tell me what a liability his boss was last year has now decided that he is a "truly impressive" figure who can "see the big picture". If his own side can't agree on what they really think of GB, they can't really expect the rest of us to form a placid view.
A former No 10 insider muses that his tone and message are not in keeping with the electorate's feelings of anger and bewilderment.
"What Gordon should say," he adds, is: 'Look, I know you don't like me much - and I wouldn't feel that fond of whoever was PM right now either. Wait until next spring and judge me on whether things have got better and who you trust to take it from there."'
In other words, don't keep trying to win an argument no one wants to have. Arguing the toss now about what the recession is, how long it's going to be, what caused it and why he's not to blame is a waste of breath.
Talking to Mr Brown sometimes, I am always struck by how deep his sense of frustration runs about how much he has said that is not reported: "But I said that in a speech!" is one of his favourite outraged protests. He really does not seem to take in that it is not what is said that is the point: just what is heard.
Yesterday, as bankers rolled up before the Treasury Select Committee to explain how the marvellous, wealth-creating, stable banking sector had turned into a basket case, "sorry" was the word expected of them. Most delivered.
There were get-out clauses, warnings, I-told-you-so's - all of that. But the base note was contrition and acceptance that something had gone wrong.
In government, ministers are impaled on their refusal to admit that the malfunction has anything to do with them.
Having first taken credit for the abolition of boom and bust, they find themselves struggling to explain the inversion of that happy world into economic misery and nationalised banks.
Coming to all this afresh, Barack Obama said in his inauguration speech that there was a collective responsibility to be borne. Not all blame could be heaped on the US sub-prime mortgage mongers.
Mr Balls's claim that the financial recession is the "worst we've seen" in a century is instructive in this context.
As Treasury Secretary and economic spokesman for Mr Brown as Chancellor, he was one of the most vocal proponents of the thesis that boom and bust was over.
One way out of the contradiction between past confidence and present mess is to claim that the crash is a one-off, unforeseeable event - and nothing at all to do with the competences of governments.
Not many signs abound that this is working politically. Indeed, there are the first signs of a less than united front among ministers about where the arguments now lead.
The Right wing of Cabinet - pro-business voices such as James Purnell and Peter Mandelson - are concerned that the party should not use the crisis to throw the baby out with the bath water and inhibit the City too much when it needs to bounce back.
The Left - spearheaded by an increasingly active and ambitious Harriet Harman - whip up as much outrage as can be mustered, and in so doing are setting up new dividing lines for the party if Mr Brown loses next year.
Today the Populus/Times poll gives a 14-point lead to the Tories. The days, only recently, have gone when the Tory poll lead (at a shaky five to eight points) would encourage No 10 to flirt with an early vote.
"We're starting to get the sort of figures which mean Cameron might really win a proper victory," says one experienced party pollster. Hence the shift of rhetoric from "it's ours to win" to the more spectral ghost of a "fighting chance".
Ministers who wore well in steadier times suddenly seem gaffe-prone or trivial. Uncertain what to say about the vital matter of the recession and the banks, they fall back on a kind of generalised warbling about this and that.
Tessa Jowell warns (again) that the white working-class feels disenfranchised (code for our core vote is deserting us).
Hazel Blears trills about the need for engagement in politics but her Blairy cheeriness is at odds with the times. Liam Byrne has just published a (quite good) paper on reforming public services - with no sign that No 10 is really interested in this agenda beyond lip service.
Oh, and Jacqui Smith, who never quite seems to believe that she is Home Secretary, can't see why anyone should get worked up over her interpretation of the parliamentary allowances rules - when millions are surveying their household finances with trepidation.
"We feel," one perceptive junior minister remarks, "like a choir that suddenly lost the organist and is trying to sing a cappella."
The organist himself is, according to his staff, relishing his job: he set off around the country recently and genuinely enjoyed the meet-and-greets with children, grannies and even the task of soothing cross and worried workers.
There's no doubt the PM sees this recession as his chance to leave his mark: to "do the right thing" as he puts it.
But listen hard and you hear a hint of legacy-seeking. Something has changed. In his heart, he knows that his lease in No 10 now looks like being a short one.
Reader views (11)
Its nice to know that "deep down" Gordon Brown knows what the rest of us have known for years - that he is a loser. The trouble is he is determined to hang on to power until the bitter end. The alternative, I'm afraid are nasty, objectionable Tories. Only 30 per cent of the electorate will vote for them - like all other British Governments they will call this minority vote a "majority". We need Proportional Representation where a Government actually represents the way the electorate vote, and where politicians don't grossly distort the vote so that 27 to 30 per cent of votes cast is called a "majority."
- Neil, Gloucestershire, England., 12/02/2009 08:19
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Brown is an intelligent man with a kindly, compassionate nature. He is also not a leader of the pack by nature. Why would a gifted person like this want to pursue a career in the bear-pit of British party politics? In the immortal words of Toyah Wilcox, "Itth a mythtery!" Wouldn't he be a far happier man doing something else instead? The Labour party are currently suffering a slow, agony of a death by a thousand cuts and will very probably split into two opposing camps after their crushing defeat at the next General Election. Just think: There might never be another Labour government again - ever!
- Gordo, Birmingham, UK, 11/02/2009 19:43
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He has to go he has to go!!
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London, 11/02/2009 18:31
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Gordon Brown and his blairy eyed mates will get his day of reckoning at the next election. Myself and many more labour voters are fed up with this trough gurgling lot. Unfortunately the only one who seems to have seen this coming is Tony Blair and he got out when the going was good. Gordon has reaped Blairs legacy, Financial meltdown, weekly soldirs deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, Greed and corruption in government. I really hope the tories have learny by their mistakes. Because they will have to pick up the pieces.
- Tom Fitz, Loughborough, 11/02/2009 17:32
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No. The Conservatives are not identical to Labour. For Labour in 1997 it was all about dismantling the state in order to get away with ripping off the electorate and making money. Blair got out in time. Now we have to vote the gangsters out of office before it's too late.
- Jamal Akhbar, Edinburgh, 11/02/2009 16:23
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AS I commented yesterday,
IN THE END EVERYONE GETS PROMOTED BEYOND THEIR ABILITY
- Alan Green, woodford green, 11/02/2009 16:13
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James, London
"I hope the Conservative Leader David is that man."
There once was a time when I had the same hope; now I fear it is all too late and he will be just another piece of flotsam left behind after the tsunami hits.
- Morvan, Saulieu, France, 11/02/2009 16:01
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Its strange that despite Labour winning by a landslide in 1997, that you now can't find a single person who will admit voting for them.
In the 1970s, Labour brought the country to its knees. The as soon as the Tories rescued it, the population went all 'fluffy' again and voted in Labour once more, who, unsurprisingly and true to form, ruined the economy again.
I suppose some poor Tory government will have to sort out the mess once more.
- George, London, 11/02/2009 14:25
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If you listen to any Labour politician on TV talking about the recession you hear one word more than any other: "global". Global crisis, global economic conditions etc etc. They really have tried very hard to pass the blame for their own economic mismanagement on external forces. Some of it is, but if we hadn't jumped on the bandwagon, and let the bankers do anything they liked, then we wouldn’t be in half as much mess as we are now.
Add all their intrusions into civil liberties and there you have are two reasons never to vote Labour ever again.
Saying that, I don't think the Tories will be much better, seeing as both parties are virtually identical.
- Luke, London, N1, 11/02/2009 11:48
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At the end of the day, Gordan Brown, along whith his pathetic Labour goverment need to be removed from office.
The Labour goverment has done what no other nation on earth has been able to do, bring britain to her knees.
We need a Conservative goverment, that will reform the EU or lead Britain on the long road to withdraw completely from its corrupt grips as the former Soviet Union had on the east, rebuild our crumbling economy, and give our military the funding it needs to rebiuld its self.
But will the Conservative leader David keep true to his word? All we can do is hope so.
The UKIP party also is a good choice, they have shown they are dead set on a UK withdrawal from the EU, and a zeal to maximise the UKs military power. Although the UKIP has very little experiance on dealing whith economics even when it is growing let alond in decline.
Britain needs a true patriotic leader that belives in a militarily and economicly strong and indapendant Great Britain.
I hope the Conservative Leader David is that man.
- James, London, 11/02/2009 10:20
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It's not so much a losing 'streak' as more the size of Wembley stadium. I mean, thinking back, can anyone think of a single good thing Crash has achieved in the last 11 years?
- Marianne, SW France, 11/02/2009 10:07
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