Gordon Brown's nightmare

The BBC compares the task facing Gordon Brown with past Prime Ministers who took over in mid-term, such as Harold Macmillan. Brown has apparently studied past transitions to try to avoid some of the obvious pitfalls when he takes over.

Historian and journalist Francis Beckett has written a series of 20 biographies of 20th Century prime ministers. He says:

"Gordon Brown's living, waking nightmare" is that he will be like James Callaghan or Alec Douglas Home, a prime minister "tacked on to the end of somebody's else period of office who is only ever really remembered for the fact that he was prime minister."