Brown in the Holy Land

So Gordon Brown is taking a quick gallop through Israel and Palestine this week – Yad Vashem, the Knesset, Bethlehem, and so on.

Personally, if I hear Brown meander on once more about learning about the Holy Land at his father’s knee I will spit. Enough with the cheap Brownie points already.

Sadly he doesn’t have that much more to offer. His big shtick - sorting out the peace process through economic support for the Palestinians – is already being done rather more effectively by his predecessor Tony Blair, for what it’s worth, which isn’t much.

Economic development is a great idea but without freedom of movement and Israeli co-operation is not going to get very far at all. Blair did not get very far with the political track, but at least he tried. It is pretty feeble for a British prime minister’s entire strategy to be based on sidestepping the whole thorny peace process issue.