Coming from the mouth of that arch-Marxist, Gordon Brown, pronouncements that he wanted to see Britain become a “property owning democracy” always struck me as somewhat contradictory to his political doctrine. I’d have been much less surprised to hear him say: “All property is theft,” before having us all march out, Khmer Rouge-style, to the fields and toil away for his – sorry, our – Marxist utopia. But Brother Brown is always full of surprises. It struck me too that given his crusade against Robert Mugabe, perhaps our PM doesn’t realise that he is himself an unelected dictator.<br><br>Maybe Brother No One was lying when he talked about expanding our property owning democracy. Perhaps it was all a charade to convince us that he really did want us to work hard for ourselves and reap the personal rewards for doing so – whilst handing over a chunk of that in the form of stamp duty for the deserving poor of course… Or just maybe he’s a damned slight cleverer than we give him credit for. Because one thing seems sure – we’re moving away from a “property owning democracy” at an alarming pace. Even more strangely, so too is that bastion …