HE IS a figure of ridicule – a cheap laugh for comics – teetering on the brink of a humiliating exit from the job he craved his entire adult life, and perhaps in just a few days’ time.

Yet, less than two years ago, Gordon Brown was a political colossus, revered by supporters, feared by opponents and hailed even by right-wing commentators as a man "touched by greatness".

So just how has it all gone so badly wrong for Mr Brown, to the point where a Euro-poll disaster, or revolting Cabinet ministers, could soon force him out of Downing Street?

Is the Prime Minister a victim of unlucky timing, reaching No.10 as recession loomed and as the expenses timebomb was primed to explode, or have deep character flaws been exposed?

First, no prime minister could avoid a battering in the teeth of the deepest recession since the 1930s – one which had been caused, primarily, by events beyond these shores.

And Mr Brown surely cannot be blamed for apparent exposure of the three Cabinet ministers at the centre of the turmoil – Jacqui Smith, Hazel Blears and Alistair Darling – as expenses cheats.

But, with that mitigation out of the way, not even the staunchest Brown supporter – and there are a few left – could deny their man’s central role in his own downfall.

Of course, Mr Brown does lack charisma, at least set against Tony Blair or David Cameron, but that, remember, was seen as a plus when we were all heartily sick of the ex-PM’s cheesy grin.

Far more damaging is the inability to act swiftly and decisively when faced by a crisis such as the expenses scandal and the outpouring of public fury it provoked.

Labour MPs are disbelieving that Mr Cameron, a very rich man who charges the taxpayer top-whack mortgage interest on an Oxfordshire mansion – while paying off a London mortgage – has won the expenses battle.