Mr Bean meets Mr Smooth

A telling little sketch in the Telegraph by Andrew Gimson highlights how inept our glorious leader is in situations where he cannot dominate. Its starts with the story of Mr Bean(Brown) meeting Mr Smooth (Sarkozy) and relates how Mr Bean lumbers and jerks across the scene like a puppet manpulated by a three-year old.

The final part of the article is the most damning howver, Mr Gimson observes

We fear that as an exceptionally intelligent and conscientious young man, Mr Brown decided that whatever else he needed to learn, it was not the ancient art of courtly behaviour on formal occasions. A man with such an intellect, and with such a desire to dominate those around him, had no need for the polite arts of a courtier.

But domination, of the kind Mr Brown exerted with such an iron hand during his 10 years at the Treasury, is not of much value when it comes to exchanging courtesies with foreigners such as Mr Sarkozy or Mr Bush who have to be treated as your equals.

This is where Mr Brown is utterly hopeless: at treating other people with any appearance of equality.

His urge is always to dominate, and when he knows that he cannot dominate, he falls into a childish state of nervous clumsiness. With Mr Sarkozy, Mr Bush and other such dignitaries, Mr Brown moves with all the grace of a man trapped in a heavy and unfamiliar Victorian diving suit. If his diplomacy is as clumsy as his body language, we fear he is always going to have great difficulty dealing with foreigners.

Brown showing how true to life Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean has become. The problem is that having a slap-stick comic as a Prime Minister is not what we need in these times of trouble.

Meeting Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown loses his amour-propre - Telegraph