So, who started the (rather apt) Mr Bean / Gordon Brown references?
Some credit the Liberal Democrat Vincent ‘Vince’ Cable as being the man who made the parallel famous on November 28th 2007.
However, in the Daily Express of November 19th 2007, columnist Leo McKinstry wrote:
Through his serial incompetence, Brown is fast becoming
the political equivalent of Mr Bean. All too many of his appointments
have turned out to be mistaken, whether it be the inexperienced Jacqui
Smith at the Home Office or the pompous Mark Malloch-Brown at the
Foreign Office.From the absurdity of employing 10,000 illegal immigrants in the
security industry to the ongoing mess of Northern Rock, Brown has
allowed Bean-like ineptitude to become the hallmark of his brief reign.
As with Mr Bean, Brown is a major social embarrassment to those around
him.
Then again, the BBC published an article entitled ‘Newspapers dub PM ‘Gordon Bean‘ on August 4th 2007 as both the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph made comparisons between the two characters.
Well, although not actually referring to Gordon Brown, possibly a
bit of incredible foresight and intuition from none other than the man
himself, Homer Simpson, who, upon visiting the UK exclaimed, ‘I can’t
believe we just met Mr Bean!’.
Was it, in fact, Homer Simpson who planted the seed in people’s minds? I wouldn’t be surprised.