The challenge facing Gordon Brown
Well Gordon Brown is now officially Leader of the Labour Party, and will become Prime Minister on Wednesday. I’m feeling much the same as people must have thought about John Major when he took over - he can’t be any worse than his predecessor.
Time will tell whether that is true, but let’s not pretend that all is well and Gordon Brown is the saviour of British politics - plenty of what he has been saying over the last few weeks simply does not tally with his actions in government:
- Gordon Brown promises more open, spin-free politics. So he goes behind Ming Campbell’s back and invites Lord Ashdown to join his Cabinet, after Ming Campbell had said he did not want any Lib Dems to do so. That’s precisely the sort of underhanded politics that people detest Bliar for (well, among other things), and if this is what Gordon Brown passes off as ’spin-free politics’ then things may get worse before they get better
- Gordon Brown says that the levels of child poverty and inequality in Britain are unacceptable. I’d bet that most of us agree. What he doesn’t explain though, is why after ten years as Chancellor the former still exists (to the shame of an oil-producing rich nation) and the latter has actually gone up
- Gordon Brown calls for increased personal responsibility. This is the chancellor responsible for the biggest raid on pensions - and, resultingly, the biggest pensions collapse - in living memory.
So there are certainly quite a few issues with Gordon Brown’s record as Chancellor, but for now I’m just glad to be (almost) rid of the smarmy, warmongering arse we’ve been passing off as a ‘leader’ for the last ten years.
Tags: Gordon Brown, Labour, News, Politics, Tony Blair