Support hose

Mr Brown must close the gap between rhetoric and reality

That's some gap...

... and even his most ardent cheerleaders (you know who you are) are now struggling to span, much less plug it.

Just why anyone is offering Capt. Queeg any crumb of support to keep his hands on the wheel of the Titanic as he looks for the next iceberg to ram and other person to blame, is beyond rational comprehension.