Where's Gordon?

Ballot papers in the Labour leadership contest are due for dispatch today, yet still the nation waits with baited breath for the thoughts of Gordon Brown whose writ once ran through the People's Party like a stick of Blackpool Rock.

I find this puzzling, I have to admit because various former luminaries with the Labour party have all had their say: Tony Blair, John Prescott, Alan Johnson, David Blunkett, Neil Kinnock, Alistair Campbell and so on have all spoken out.

But Gordon, who intervened with his famous (or infamous) 'Pledge' during Scotland's independence referendum, is still nowhere to be seen or heard.

Now The Times reported that the Brown family had decamped to California for a while although I doubt this prevented Gordon from burnishing his credentials as a 'distinguished global leader in residence' (at the Abu Dhabi campus of New York University) or as a globe-trotting envoy of the United Nations.

"Why does all this matter?", I hear you ask. 

Well it matters because Gordon and his acolytes have to take a measure of responsibility for the mess the Labour party finds itself in today since the 'Brownites' waged a cynical campaign to discredit their rival 'Blairites' for years.

Even to the extent of calling their own leader and Prime Minister a 'Tory' and generally distancing themselves from the Labour leadership despite the fact that Gordon Brown himself was one of the original architects of the New Labour project.

So if you ask me, power and/or the pursuit of power seems to drive lots of otherwise normal people completely mad. 

Which leads me to the small matter of Ed Miliband who only became Labour leader with the enthusiastic support of the 'Brownites' within the Labour party and Gordon's chums in the trade unions including his old spin doctor Charlie Whelan who ended up as 'political director' of Unite, of course.  

And having completely cocked up the 2015 general election, Ed Miliband quickly buggers off on holiday with his family, having resigned, leaving Labour with no option but to call a leadership contest which has turned into a political nightmare.

Now I think it's fair to say that Jeremy Corbyn made no great impact with within the Labour party when it was led by Neil Kinnock and John Smith in opposition, or Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in government - or even latterly under Ed Miliband.
  
So where does Gordon stand now and what does he think of his own role in helping to bring the once-proud Labour party to its knees?

I think we should be told.