Remembering Chancellor Road-Block 

Rachel Sylvester writes a typically excellent article in today’s Telegraph, charting Brown’s apparent transformation into a fervid Blairite. I’m still not convinced that the change is anything more than rhetorical.  But regardless of Brown’s sincerity, he’ll face a big challenge to make people forget his time as a “roadblock to reform”.  As Sylvester puts it:

“But what if [Brown’s pro-reform stance is] too late? What if the image of sullen ground has stuck? What if it takes too long for the reforms to come into effect? What if the voters do not have the patience to wait?

As one minister says: ‘The problem is, we’re about three years behind where we would have been if Gordon hadn’t been so difficult when he was Chancellor.’

As Prime Minister, Mr Brown may have embraced reform but, at the next election, he will be judged as much on the decisions he took at the Treasury as on his record at Number 10.”