Brown’s dilemma

Robert Peston’s definitive biography of the Chancellor rocked the government. Here he sets out Brown’s plans, his promise of a ‘new individualism’ — and the nightmare he faces positioning himself in relation to Blair

At last comes the final settling of accounts between the bosses of The Two Families, Don Antonio and Don Gordono. Don Antonio, the capo di tutti capi, still sits at the head of the table. But not for much longer, as Don Gordono stares him down. In a relationship measured out in mutual accusations of betrayal over many years, the mayhem of the past few days can be traced in part to what Don Gordono sees as the great treachery of 2004.

This was when Don Antonio failed to honour what Don Gordono saw as a firm and unsolicited commitment to resign in that autumn. At the impasse, Don Gordono looked daggers on Don Antonio and intoned in his rich baritone, ‘There is nothing that you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe.