I feel sorry for Mr Brown today. The last 2 weeks have seen 3 major blunders from the labour party. First there was the question of whether they supported the military properly. Then we had the loss of two million people's personal details from the revenue and customs. Now we hear that the party has been receiving money illegally. All of this comes against the backdrop of the Northern Rock debacle.

Why do I feel sorry for him? Because I actually think he is a decent bloke doing a really tough job, but with all of this mud flying around, some of it is going to stick. He seems to me to be a moral, honest, straight-forward man doing a really tough job but he is going to be remembered as presiding over what one commentator called "Labour sleaze" this morning. I don't agree with all that he says or does, but I do respect him and I think it is ironic if he, of all people, goes down as presiding over incompetence and sleaze.

Part of me also thinks that it is bizarre that he is expected to know everything that happens in the government. I don't know everything that happens in my work, and there is much more going on when you run a country! However this is to miss the point as he is responsible for everything that goes on, whether he knows about it or not.

Isn't it interesting, that in a time when we tend to down-play responsibility in favour of rights, we are so hot on holding our leaders to their responsibilities? Don't misunderstand me, leaders should meet their responsibilities (just as they should be able to expect us to meet ours), but there will be times when their view of them differs from ours. Perhaps that's part of the problem with the way that we tend to view God?