If and when Labour lose Crewe & Nantwich at today’s by-election there will be endless head-scratching about how Gordon Brown can improve his act.

There will be demands from the left of the party; and from the right. There will be debate about Mr Brown’s policy platform and whether it is right or wrong. No doubt his handling of the economic downturn will also be mulled over.

But my informal polling (friends, family, apolitical colleagues) brings to mind a famous quote from Sex and the City. One of the women is pining after a man and can’t work out why she has been spurned. A friend offers the cathartic reply: “He’s just not that into you”.

Members of the public who don’t like the Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath can’t always put their finger on why this is so. Unfair, but true. They’re just not that into him.

Here, my colleague Alex Barker offers some typically vague criticism from the people of Crewe - which may offer a pointer to Labour’s poor prospects tonight.

May 22nd, 2008 in Current Affairs, Gordon Brown, Labour, Uncategorised | Permalink