Question - Will Gordon Brown be the first Prime Minister to suffer death by PR?

Peter Mandelson may have strained every last ounce of his PR intelligence to have saved the PM for now, but how long can he staunch the tide of what is essentially a PR war?

Gordon Brown had the misfortune to pick up the mantle after Tony Blair left him with a huge mess to clean up. He will have known and prepared for that campaign an no doubt hoped to push aside the damage from our involvement in the 2nd Gulf war with a his ability to manage the economy - but then we hit global recession so he came a tad unstuck.

His biggest failure has been his lack of charisma. Where once content would have triumphed over presentation, today's voting public care less about policy than they do for a well turned out suit, a confident smile and a sound-bite that resonates and sticks with them. Blair was a prime exponent of that art, Brown lived in that shadow, standing his own ground as a fierce defender of the economy; together they had what we all desired - presentation and policy.

Brown then had the misfortune to be in Number 10 when the MP's expenses scandal broke. As the leader of the present Government he is not responsible for the rules that allowed the self-serving MPs to feed at the trough. His own record does not look too stained but the public have turned their anger on him and his party more than any other - they have lost the public relations battle in that one. What's worse for Brown is the way the media has forced the agenda on the expenses scandal and the comment on subsequent electoral losses.

Comments from David Cameron, William Hague, fleeing Ministers and backbenchers have been reiterated by BBC reporters as if they were fact rather than opinion. The opposition have been far sharper in their media PR relations than anyone in Government apart from Mandelson. They have been able to feed the media with suggestions, ideas and comments that have gone virtually unchallenged, leaving the journalists to have creative field day.

Brown's inability or decision not to go on the PR offensive has been used by the opposition and commentators as proof positive of his weakness and complicity in the failure of our political system. He is being hounded by the media and seriously injured by the opposition, not because of what he has done, but because of what he is seen not to do. He may still have some vestige of control over his Ministers but he certainly has none over his reputation in the public eye.

It is too late now but Brown should have stood firm in the face of Ministerial back-stabbing. His reaction should have been to expose the fleeing rats for what they were. When Blears and Flint walked he should have helped them on their way by exposing them as self-serving cowards.

If Gordon Brown does lose office before the next election, it will be because he failed in the one area that his predecessor understood only too well - how to manage your public image.