Richard Heller: Gordon Brown was the future once – and failed. That's why he cannot win

The election is being fought on the economy. The economy crashed under Brown. End of story.

But Gordon Brown wasn't to blame for the crash and he saved the world afterwards...

All that is open to argument. The key fact is that the crash was not supposed to happen at all. It followed 10 years of continuous self-congratulation by Brown, in which he claimed to have created a new economy, free at last of the failings of the old. Ten years when complacency became Britain's biggest growth industry. His boasting and bombast never carried any small print – warning, global markets can go up as well as down.

Add to that, 10 years of worship of bankers. He could not see a banker without falling on his knees and touching the hem of his garment. Not content with letting them do as they pleased with Britain's money, he let them loose on the NHS, on welfare reform, on a host of public services where they knew even less than they knew about banking. He accepted totally their claims to be wealth creators and constantly defended the light-touch regulation which allowed them to flourish –

right up to the collapse of Northern Rock.

Voters now know that Brown's economy was built on the hollow foundations of consumer debt and casino banking (I use this term for convenience, although it is unfair to casinos. Their players at least know whether they are betting on red or white, Brown's beloved bankers punted billions on financial instruments they could not value or even understand).

Voters now know that his long boom was always likely to end in tears.

If Gordon Brown says anything good about the economy, voters can

remember hearing it before – when disaster was round the corner.

Loss of faith in the Prime Minister's economic judgment is fatal for him and the Labour Party. That was his sole claim to power. He never won the affection of the British people and the economy alone won him their respect. He was a one-trick pony in British politics, and when the pony cannot do his one trick any more he leaves the circus, he does not lead the parade.

Labour had enough trouble restoring belief in Gordon Brown, and they have made it even harder by issuing a series of fatuous scripts to the voters.

It wants voters to give the Premier personal credit for the boom years, to blame the crash on the feckless Americans, but then give him personal credit again for taking Britain and the world to recovery.

This story is not only silly but reminds voters of his least attractive quality (one shared with Tony Blair). He likes to hawk his conscience around the world but is never willing to accept personal responsibility for error and failure. He displayed that quality again with a self-satisfied performance at the Iraq inquiry. It contributes to the general collapse of trust in British politics and feeds the growing belief that politicians are not willing to meet the standards they constantly preach at everyone else.

Labour wants voters to admire Brown's tough decisions over Britain's banks. These would be the same banks which are still paying out huge bonuses, still gambling in financial fantasy products, and still not lending us the money we gave them to bail them out.

Labour wants voters to believe Brown's (second-hand) promise of "a future fair for all". If that bromide means anything, it means a more equal country. He failed to achieve this, even when he had plenty of money to give away.

It is daft to believe that he can achieve this when public finances are in ruins – or any other ambitious promise. To be brutal, Gordon Brown was the future once – and it didn't work. He's had 13 years in charge of the economy, longer than anyone since Gladstone. He received a better economic legacy than any other incoming Labour Chancellor and for years had a very easy ride in the world economy. How much longer

does he need to get the economy right? Five years, 10, 20... a thousand?

An economic genius who presided over economic calamity, who does not accept any personal responsibility for it and makes unbelievable

promises for a future which is not in his gift... I do not believe that self-respecting voters will hand over another five years of their lives to Gordon Brown, even after yesterday's manifesto launch.

The polls do suggest that they are getting suspicious and angry about the alternative offered by David Cameron. They have seen weakness over "Lord Cashcroft", imprecision over key policies, and excessive reliance on cosmetic changes, both literally and figuratively. But Cameron has a priceless advantage: he never promised to have abolished economic disaster and he was not in charge when it happened. And if

voters do remain angry with him, that does not guarantee their return to Gordon Brown.

Labour cannot win the coming election. If I am wrong,I will eat this article in front of the main office of this newspaper.

Richard Heller is a former policy adviser to Denis Healey.