The big political story of the New Year will be how Gordon Brown tries to get his groove back. Peter Oborne reports in the Mail this morning that Brown’s plans include a regional tour, a possible cabinet reshuffle and a rapprochement with the Blairites. To that end, Oborne reveals:
“There is now lively talk inside Downing Street that Alastair Campbell might be brought back in a senior strategic role in the New Year and, apparently, there are indications that Blair’s controversial former Press Secretary would welcome such a role.
More striking still, I am assured that Cherie Blair is now certain to receive a peerage.” One wonders if a peerage will be enough to ensure that Cherie’s autobiography glosses over the Blair – Brown feud as tactfully as Campbell’s The Blair Years did. With the publciity swing for Cherie’s book scheduled to reach a crescendo at the Labour conference next year, the Brownites are desperate to minimise the damage that the book will inflict on the Prime Minister.
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