The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20071013041331/http://comment.independent.co.uk:80/commentators/matthew_norman/

Matthew Norman: Brown is on the ropes. He needs to gamble

Published: 12 October 2007

An anniversary is approaching that might, if he had the wit to appreciate the parallels, be an inspiration to Gordon Brown. It was on Sunday, 16 November 1997 that Tony Blair summoned John Humphrys to Chequers for the interview that saved him from neo-natal prime ministerial death. Mr Blair had been in office for barely longer than Mr Brown has today, and although his trouble (Bernie Ecclestone's £1m) looked superficially different, the root problem was the same one Gordon faces now. He'd been rumbled for a fake.

Matthew Norman: So Gordon is not that clever after all ...

Published: 05 October 2007

"You Can Get It If You Really Want It" was the studiedly optimistic musical message as David Cameron left the stage in Blackpool on Wednesday afternoon, but the lyric on everyone's mind belongs to a slightly edgier singer than Jimmy Cliff.

Matthew Norman: Ken and Boris: are they the same person?

Published: 28 September 2007

At least we can now forget 1 May 2008. With it being the 11th anniversary of the first election won by a Prime Ministerial luvvie whose name dare not be spoken, perhaps it was always unlikely that Gordon Brown would choose that particular Thursday. Even if he was tempted, however, confirmation that Boris Johnson will stand for London Mayor on 1 May surely rules it out completely. The potential, however remote, for a Boris bandwagon to flatten Labour incumbents in a dozen or more pivotal south-east marginals will hardly have escaped the PM and the 57 varieties of number cruncher with whom he'll be closeted this weekend.

Matthew Norman: Cherie, the patron saint of reality television

Published: 21 September 2007

Judging by the front cover photograph already released by her publisher, warts and all is the last thing Cherie Blair's autobiography will be. About herself, at least. Heavily airbrushed to remove any vestige of wart, spot or blemish, not to mention a couple of chins, the picture allows a mirthless, bloody-but-unbowed smile to flirt with those capacious lips, but vetoes any worry lines on her forehead.

Matthew Norman: Madeleine and the paradox of our emotions

Published: 14 September 2007

On and on and on it goes, remorseless in its gruesome fascination, unyielding in its seductive impenetrability, interminable in its obsessing curiosity. You come home, and the first thing you do is check Ceefax or the net for an update. You go out, and whether it's the dinner table, the poker table, the supermarket check-out or the bus, there is no escape from constant theorising about the latest semi-news from the Algarve or Leicestershire. Not that we seek refuge. Quite the contrary, we are as contentedly institutionalised in the world of Madeleine McCann as an octogenarian lifer in prison.

Matthew Norman: The strange, lingering suicide of the BBC

Published: 07 September 2007

Sitting in a High Court conference room one cold January day in 2004, little did we foresee the implications for Britain's last well-loved national institution of what we were hearing. Of course we didn't. We were too busy fighting to suppress the laughter to find the energy for clairvoyance.

Matthew Norman: So, Gordon, do you believe prison works?

Published: 31 August 2007

It is a strange and unsettling fact of political life that even now, 10 years after he unofficially took control of domestic policy, and two months after that role become official, we haven't the first idea what Gordon Brown believes about virtually anything beyond the confines of economics.

Matthew Norman: Doctor, doctor - this party looks a bit sickly

Published: 24 August 2007

In the general run of things, any caring soul contemplating Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley this week would advise him to check in to the nearest NHS sleep disorder clinic without delay. The trouble is that poor, befuddled Mr Lansley will be convinced that they have all been shut down for want of funding.

Matthew Norman: What will history make of Blair's guest list?

Published: 27 July 2007

Not one Muslim leader, economist, climatologist or philosopher to set against the wit of Steve McClaren

Matthew Norman: A spliff is one thing - skunk quite another

Published: 20 July 2007

The last time I smoked skunk, I became convinced that I was trapped inside the body of a bassett hound

Matthew Norman: Please, Ming, recognise your limitations

Published: 06 July 2007

It's not you, it's us. You are a man of gravitas and constancy; we are the shallow children of television

Matthew Norman: A Cabinet of husbands, brothers and wives

Published: 29 June 2007

Gordon has grafted a pair of Balls on to his top team, after years of eunuchs under his predecessor

Matthew Norman: Bernard Manning's fatal flaw

Published: 22 June 2007

Old-school comics are invariably trapped in the era of their initial success, and none more than Bernard

Matthew Norman: Should we really let pensioners go blind?

Published: 15 June 2007

If an 80-year-old's sight can be saved for £36,000, there is a clear moral imperative to find the money

Matthew Norman: The special relationship is a sad joke

Published: 08 June 2007

In return for destroying himself by joining the Iraq invasion, Mr Blair has received less than nothing

Matthew Norman: Campbell, with the best bits left out

Published: 01 June 2007

Every diary worth reading, political or otherwise, lives or dies according to its candour

Matthew Norman: Demise of our latter-day Kissinger

Published: 25 May 2007

Our policy on the most incendiary part of the planet was shaped by a former record label owner

Matthew Norman: The prayers and fears of those on death row

Published: 11 May 2007

The only person in Britain still unaware that he is finished is Lord Falconer himself

Matthew Norman: Blair let me down

Published: 11 May 2007

Was Blair the classic sociopath who believed his words were true, since they came from his mouth?

Matthew Norman: Sackings, sycophants and Jack Straw

Published: 04 May 2007

The choice of his first Cabinet could hardly be more crucial for Gordon Brown

Matthew Norman: Could you have a gay Prime Minister now?

Published: 27 April 2007

In Ted Heath's day, the last thing the PM needed was a baby. He didn't even need to be married

Matthew Norman: A prime minister who just can't be bovvered

Published: 06 April 2007

Everyone must believe it is an act of wickedness knowingly to send children to their deaths

Matthew Norman: We've lost the authority to lecture Iran

Published: 30 March 2007

The Iraqi misadventure has rendered Britain too demoralised to respond with serious force

Matthew Norman: Brown's first task is to reinvent himself

Published: 23 March 2007

Lurking beneath the granite surface has always been a hint of music hall showman

Matthew Norman: Nothing succeeds like lack of success

Published: 16 March 2007

Sir Hayden's failure to improve the honours system was rewarded with a request to look into party funding
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