Gordon Brown is at the center of a kind of political reality show in Britain. Whether the show is a farce or a tragedy has yet to be determined. His cabinet has practically deserted him; his people are knifing each other; his party was decimated at the elections; the scandals associated with him has caused Parliament to end its centuries old practice of regulating itself. But he still hangs on.

The name of the beach gaffe will be understood by his critics as yet another instance of Gordon ‘losing it’. Of course it is nothing in itself.