Would the real coward please stand up?

Benazhir Bhutto, the supposed saviour of democracy in Pakistan, has been assassinated. This has prompted Gordon Brown, our self-appointed expert on courage, to describe the perpetrators as "cowards [who are] afraid of democracy".

It strikes Woody that this is an excellent example of what psychologists call projection - casting your own obvious failings onto others in an attempt to distance yourself from them.


Just in case anyone forgot, Brown the Clown:

• Bottled out of standing against Smith for the party leadership in 1992
• Bottled out of standing against Blair for the party leadership in 1994
• Did everything he could to ensure that he was handed the party leadership without any opposition or general election
• Bottled out of a general election in November 2007, when he realised he might lose

So who's really the coward who's afraid of democracy?

Woody apologises for falling off a cliff in his blogging earlier this month. He hopes to be more consistent in future.