Recently I have been exploring a number of clients dreams that feature the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown.  Although Gordon is a regular visitor for many dreamers, such as the Independent’s Catherine Townsend, his current unpopularity seems to be making him a very popular dream character.

One dreamer described a dream in which he was trying to escape from a horde of pursuing zombies who were being led by an undead Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.  The gang of ghouls reminded him of the zombified cheap labour and game show contestants at the end of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s Rom Zom Com Shaun of the Dead.

Often when we dream of being pursued by something unpleasant in our dreams, we are avoiding an issue that we really have to deal with in our waking lives.  The more pressing the issue becomes, the more dramatic and scary our dreams may become.

Usually the issue creating the tension in our waking life centres around making a seemingly  unpopular decision that will actually the healthiest and best choice for us.

When we dream of a leader, particularly a political leader, he or she usually represents how we experience authority and how we make decisions or let others make decisions for us.

Zombies usually symbolise parts of ourselves that we are neglecting, areas where we feel dead inside, and burdened by responsibility, we are merely shuffling through the motions of being human.

For this dreamer being pursued by Gordon and Alistair, the issue in waking life was that he felt under chronic pressure from his family to conform to conventional expectations.  However, he is a talented guitarist and songwriter, and the decision he had to make was between parental conformity or following his dream of being a professional musician.

The decision he made was to follow his dream, and although unpopular with his parents, he knows he has made the right choice, and the governmental ghouls will now fade from his dreams.

Perhaps Gordon Brown should reflect on his own dreams, rather than just trying to be popular.  His latest initiatives are eerily reminiscent of Shaun of the Dead, with Hazel Blears encouraging him to participate in Junior PM, yet another lowest common denominator game show, and Alistair Darling’s courting of the non doms creating even more disenfranchised cheap labour.

The Prime Minister’s next popularity initiative to win hearts and minds will probably be a collaboration with Richard Curtis to produce a sequel to the classic Rom Com Love Actually (no doubt entitled ‘Gov Actually ‘) starring an indecisive Scotsman who just wants to be loved by his people.