Byers remorse

Just after Christmas, Stephen Byers declared Tony Blair to be history and that Labour needed to unite behind Gordon Brown if it was to win the next election. Byers was asking that the policy ideas that he and fellow Blairites put forward be seen not as mere mischief-making but as genuine contributions to the debate. 

One suspects, though, that Brown sees Byers’ article in The Sunday Times as the former rather than the later. This is Brown’s loss as the reforms that Byers is proposing to the tax system—raising the personal allowance to take more people out of tax, hypothecating more and coordinating the tax and benefits systems to lower the effective marginal rate of tax—are both good policy and good politics.  

At the moment, a lot of criticism of Brown is centering on his personal flaws and lack of political skills. But it is worth remembering that the Brownite policy agenda—as much as there is one—has also failed.