James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can Gordon recover?

With Labour down to 31% in the polls, talk has already started about whether the Brown premiership is salvageable or not. It is premature, if tempting, to declare that it is game over for Brown. This morning’s poll shows the Tories have yet to take advantage of the government’s plight and Labour are still a fairly united party unlike the post Black Wednesday Tories. As Martin Kettle writes, “Labour is united, albeit united at the moment in its misery. There is no equivalent of the self-destructive mood of the past.”

There is, though, a feeling that Brown isn’t quite good enough. Maybe, we have all been spoiled by Tony Blair—who was, whatever you thought of him, an extremely able politician—but Brown has shown himself unable to recover momentum once lost. Matthew Parris notes in his column today how the Prime Minister seems to attract trouble while Blair repelled it.

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