A Remarkable Story From Britain.

An election must shortly be called in the UK as the Parliament nears the end of its five year term. Economic issues loom largest, but so does the public’s outrage at revelations last year year by the indispensable Daily Telegraph of MPs abusing their secret system of claiming expenses.

Those will be overshadowed for at least a few days by revelations in a new book by Andrew Rawnsley that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is often a raging maniac in the office. Some of Brown’s cabinet colleagues were dispatched to defend him and pooh-pooh the story Sunday morning.

And then this: the annoyed head of a bullying helpline came forward later in the day to announce the service she founded has received calls from 10 Downing Street complaining of bullying in the prime minister’s office. Employees claim to have been manhandled and regularly humiliated by Brown.

A rancid personality probably hurts more than a pleasant one helps in politics. Gordon Brown makes the famously volatile John McCain sound like a Quaker.