Brown in need of a Major overhaul.

Byline: Kevin Maguire

GORDON Brown won't relish the advice but his best hope is to become John Major.

Not the wimp who tucked his shirt into his underpants (or pulled it out for Edwina Currie) or the cones hotline chump who led his party into the 1997 car crash.

The Major that Brown needs to be is the Prime Minister who ran as a solid leader for tough times and won in 1992 during an economic crisis.

Brown prefers comparisons with Winston Churchill and Maggie Thatcher but, unless he apes Major, history will bracket him with three-year loser Jim Callaghan.

The global financial collapse equals a long recession that may stretch into 2010. The Tory poll lead reaching double figures is shutting off the option of an early dash to the polls this spring or autumn.

Yet however bleak the political outlook appears for Labour, Brown's pet Tory turncoat Shaun Woodward is reminding the PM of what occurred in 1992.

Back then, he was in the pay of the Conservatives and the Ulster Secretary recalls how recession forced Major to delay the contest until nearly five years into a Parliament.

The Cons fought one of the dirtiest campaigns of the modern era, misrepresenting Labour and rubbishing Neil Kinnock. But they won and that's what counts. "John Major didn't win the 1992 election on the back of the economy," asserted a No.10 strategist. "John Major won by destroying Neil Kinnock."

Pinning down David Cameron is like trying to nail blancmange to the wall. The toff's been a "real Conservative", "liberal Conservative", "compassionate Conservative", "progressive Conservative" and even a plain Conservative.

We've also witnessed a claim to be "heir to Blair" and a green spell knitting yoghurt, hugging hoodies and tilting at windmills.

Labour's thinking of throwing election darts at Cam the Sham, a tap-dancing Tory constantly changing what he's supposed to believe.

Brown's contempt was evident at last Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions when he hit the bull's-eye with a venomous "out of his depth" arrow.

Labour's yet to focus Cameron in its sights and can never do so until Brown establishes exactly what his Government stands for.

Unreconciled Blairite aide Matthew Taylor sounded as if he regards politics as little more than an after-dinner game by proposing Brown waves the white napkin, calling a unilateral ceasefire against Cameron.

Taylor's wrong, of course - maybe because he's out of touch these days.

The key to a Labour comeback, the road to finishing the largest party, is to map out the route to a fairer Britain and to come out of this recession nearer the destination.

Labour needs political fire in Brown's belly as well as economic brains in his head.

Too much time's already been wasted over 12 years of trimming and triangulating, the sense of aching disappointment a Labour tragedy.

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ALL CHANGE: The PM as John Major