When is a snub not a snub?

This is the question on the lips of many in the Olympic movement with news that Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of the UK will not be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. This news followed days after he refused point blank to be photographed holding the Olympic flame outside 10 Downing Street. So what is going on?

Gordon Brown is fast becoming the yes, no, yes, no man of UK politics (much like that character in the Vicar of Dibley) and has performed so many about turns over the last few months that he seemingly does not know which way to face!

First he hinted at an early election last year only to find that the voting public had turned against him and the honeymoon was over. Then we saw the Northern Rock saga which not only lasted months but also cost the UK taxpayer a cool £25 billion, followed the non-domicile argument where the Treasury threatened to hit non-doms with a one off tax hit, only to find that the brains of the “City” would have left within weeks!

Now we see Gordon Brown struggling to make his mind up about the Beijing Olympics, but then again he has chosen to attend the closing ceremony – is that not enough? When you consider that the UK has to attend the closing ceremony to take the Olympic flame for the 2012 Games in the UK, he really has no choice.

So come on Gordon, let’s see that iron fist you flexed as the Chancellor and let’s have less of this dithering which is frankly starting to bore the country. Will the real Gordon Brown please step forward and show us the leadership which he promised, or was that all a case of smoke and mirrors?