What will history make of Gordon Brown?

This last month, possibly his last in office, has not exactly enhanced the reputation of the Prime Minister who had already attracted abuse from his political opponents and sometimes even contempt from his so-called friends.

But it was not obstinacy on the part of this obdurate man which caused him to walk back into 10 Downing Street after his party's defeat at the General Election to "chain himself to the radiator", as one critic put it.

It was not only his right but his duty to remain in office while his opponents tried to cobble together a coalition or some kind of agreement to form a viable administration.

His personal election campaign will be remembered for the minuses, not the pluses: his less than scintillating performances on the leaders' TV debates, a refusal to answer a voter's reasonable question about education during a walkabout, but, worst of all, his dreadful "bigotgate" blunder which possibly sealed his and Labour's fate.

His description of Gillian Duffy, a Rochdale woman, as "bigoted", picked up by a live microphone and thus relayed to the world was simply a gaffe too far. He could, and did, apologise, but it was too late. Mrs Duffy is made of stern stuff and she refused to leave her house with him so he could apologise to her in public face to face.

Mr Brown was clearly shattered - "mortified" was the word used by his wife Sarah - but he battled on as best he could, vowing that he would fight on until the last second of the campaign, claiming that only he had the ability and the experience to deal with Britain's dire economic crisis.

But it was to little avail. Labour suffered the worst loss of seats at a General Election since 1931.

Mr Brown returned to Downing Street, even as some newspapers were screaming for him to go. But he soon emerged, as Prime Minister, he stressed, not as Labour Party leader, talking in a statesmanlike way about the Tory-Liberal Democrats' attempts to form a coalition and adding that if that failed he was willing to step in and help.

Meanwhile, the vultures were circling overhead and some of those from whom he might have expected loyalty were rounding on him. At least three Labour MPs said he must go, while former Minister Malcolm Wicks said the idea of a Labour-Lib Dem "ragbag" coalition was ridiculous. The knives are being sharpened.

And the battle to succeed Mr Brown looks imminent, with the Miliband brothers, Ed Balls, Alan Johnson and maybe Harriet Harman in the running.

There is no happy ending to Mr Brown's premiership.