This isn´t just a lecture on waste, this is a Gordon Brown lecture on waste

It was at the G8 summit on the 7th July that Gordon Brown warned UK citizens to cut back on wasted food in the home. This is a fairly typical piece of advice from Mr Brown, who until recently was (or at least was a contender for the title of) Mr Prudent.
However, in another brilliant display of timing, or in Brown´s case a distinct lack thereof, the leaders of the richest eight countries in the world were then seen sitting down to a superb banquet, which soon brought cries of hypocrisy from the UK and, no doubt, international media.

For me, it was an excellent example of a theme which has been recurrent throughout the summer months, as the threat of a recession continues to grow and Labour´s lead falls in the court of public opinion. That theme is, that Labour and, more specifically, Mr Brown himself have both lost touch with what we in Britain seem to want and in some cases, need.

The G8 summit in July was one of several examples of Brown being seemingly hypocritical, indecisive or stubbornly silent on subjects such as Britain´s foreign policy towards Russia or the aforementioned credit crunch.

I may be alone on this ( I know my dad thinks Brown has had it), but I´m a proponent of an argument which says the following: that, rather than Brown´s Labour government suddenly being out of touch, hypocritical or indecisive in this current climate, its actually the political and economic climate itself which has, as it tends to do from time to time, revealed a flaw in our beloved democracy - that politicians aren´t always in touch with what the public want.

This isn´t confined to Britain. The election race in America has also revealed how, ultimately, the political class can never quite get down from their lecturns and join what John McCain would refer to, perhaps, as 'ordinary Americans´(Please someone explain that phrase to me).
We saw Hilary Clinton downing whiskey in blue collar bars to prove she was 'one of the guys´. Obama has tried desperately to overcome his image as the face of the liberal middle classes and win over those same working class voters. Finally, John McCain is the folksy, straight talkin´candidate who knows what America wants. Joe Biden promises to give the Obama ticket that same 'ordinary´charm.
Now, remind me, how many houses does McCain have again?
Ultimately, the White House is an ivory tower. George Bush got into it by playing to the ´ordinary´card and swiftly became a self-titled war president. But, when Hurricane Katrina happened, the amount of power and luxury at his disposal coupled with his 'ordinary´charm made him just look out of touch and unprepared from behind the desk of the Oval Office.
Back here, while Brown may have hit a creative wall politically, anyone who thinks David Cameron´s Conservatives have their hand on Britain´s pulse should think again. I can´t help but wonder if, while the Tories may seem the lesser of two evils at the moment, they would actually be able to run the country any better.
Tony Blair went to war with Iraq against public opinion. The only difference between that and Brown is, in my opinion, that it didn´t affect the price of bread or milk-
However, with our irritating lapses into Blair nostalgia being what they are, people are starting to forget his love of grace and favour holidays at Cliff Richard´s villa and his tendency towards high rhetoric.
Perhaps it´s better to just be corrupt and not be accused of being hypocritical at all. Consider if Dmitri Medvedev had pushed for further sanctions against Robert Mugabe at the G8 summit. For him to accuse the President of Zimbabwe of electoral corruption would be like the pot calling the kettle corrupt, don´t you think?
Gordon Brown may have got it wrong in accusing us of being wasteful and then not pushing harder for the eight leaders to go to Tesco and get some microwave ready meals. However, as hypocrisy goes, things could be a lot worse.