Having made the film version of the book the English Patient, should we make anything of Anthony Minghella making a film that shows Gordon Brown in a blindingly good light? The Scottish Patient, like the English Patient, tells the story of a man who has suffered horrible burn injuries (Blair happily fanned the flames, but the last embers are going out).Will Minghella’s Scottish Patient make it through to the other side? I was of the opinion that Brown was a dead cert for PM. That was, however, before learning that Mumbles "Jack" Straw is Brown’s campaign manager. Now my money’s on McDonnell, possibly even Meacher, to beat Straw’s man.
I haven’t seen Minghella’s film, but I would hazard a guess that the Scottish Patient shamelessly makes political capital retelling the death of one child and the illness of another. All of which reminds me of the title of one of Chesterton’s five Father Brown novels: “The Scandal of Father Brown”. And with Straw as "campaign manager" another Chesterton title comes to mind: "The Innocence of Father Brown", having unfortunately not written one entitled "The Complete Lunacy of Father Brown".
2 comments:
You have lost me here Toff.
I learn from Wikipedia that MInghella made a party political broadcast for labour in 2005, where Blair and Brown were shown working together as the lest of palls.
It was presumably intended as a science fiction film
Last week C4 News reported that Minghella unveiled a film about the life and times of Flash Gordon. Why he would do make such a film is a bit of a mystery. I guess Brown seems to be extremely nervous that he's seen as some sort of brooding psycho. So bring in an Oscar-winning director to jazz up your life and make out your Tom Cruise.
My face nearly dropped off my head when I learnt that Jack Straw is Brown's "campaign manager". Does Brown want to lose? A bit far-fetched, perhaps, but Straw is capable of clinching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Every time Brown makes a political miscalculation it is only a matter of hours before he finds his way to an early morning TV sofa to shed tears about his dead child and the live one with cystic fibrosis. I find his making political capital out of tragedy and illness extremely distasteful.
Brown and Cameron will no doubt battle the next election on the basis of who has the sicker child. It is the "Scandal of Father Brown", as I say, and not many people seem to have noticed it, or find it particularly repugnant. Chesterton's Father Brown is a dumpy man, who wer ill-shaped clothes and has views shaped entirely by faith.
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