First, came Yellow Saturday, when he ditched his plans to call an election

Then, yesterday, the Parliamentary ombudsman criticised the former Chancellor’s own invention, the bureaucratic and complex tax credit system, as being “unfair” to some of the UK’s poorest families.

As Danny Alexander, Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, commented:

“Gordon Brown is incapable of admitting mistakes. His callous disregard for the Ombudsman’s first report, as the title suggests, has led to continued incompetence in the administration of the system.

“Well intentioned policies for low income families are entirely undermined by mass means-testing, chaotic administration and rampant overpayments placing millions of families in hardship.”

And now Mr Brown must watch his bitch successor, Alastair Darling, apply a squeeze to public spending, as the credit crunch hits the UK.

Ming Campbell has laid into the Prime Minister today, holding him personally to account for the problems now facing the economy:

“As Chancellor, Gordon Brown happily lauded his own economic wizardry, but failed even to recognise the growing problems of personal debt. Personal debt now stands at £1.3 trillion and households now have to set aside about a fifth of their income to service existing debt, two fifths for first time buyers.

“Every day nearly 300 people face insolvency and 75 family homes are repossessed. All the indications are that the problems could get much worse. This is a problem of the Prime Minister’s making and he must take personal responsibility for it.”

Gordon Brown spent a decade envying Tony Blair for having the top job. Which just goes to show you have to be careful what you wish for.