Gordon’s ghost

Gordon Brown’s physical presence in 10 Downing Street, while irksome, was not really the problem.

Gordon Brown’s physical presence in 10 Downing Street, while irksome, was not really the problem. As Prime Minister, he struggled to achieve anything positive: his skills lay mainly in destroying rivals and terrorising Conservatives. The power he exerted derived from his ability to programme the government machine, and advance his agenda: five-year plans, faith in bureaucracy and the idea that money was the solution to every given problem. It is these ideas, not the man himself, which David Cameron must vanquish.

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In many respects, Mr Brown can be regarded as an astonishingly successful politician. His agenda was to increase the size of the state and he did exactly that: government spending is now at 53 per cent of the nation’s economic output, up from 37 per cent ten years ago.