Steve Richards

Some advice for Brown’s second year: find a John Reid and bring back Charles Clarke

Steve Richards reviews the week in politics

issue 28 June 2008

Gordon Brown’s first anniversary in Number 10 Downing Street is passing in the usual whirl of Prime Ministerial hyperactivity. It would have been out of character for Mr Brown to raise a glass if the year had been an unambiguous triumph, but even a more fun-loving leader would balk at toasting the last 12 months. Instead the event is marked by an eruption of articles and television programmes seeking to analyse what has gone wrong. Mr Brown will not have liked any of them.

A less commonly asked question in the media’s volcanic eruption is what, if anything, the Prime Minister can do to change the situation in his second year at the helm. Are there actions he can take which might make his next anniversary in Downing Street a little more upbeat than the first?

Of course there is an increasingly common view that Mr Brown is doomed to spend the remainder of his Prime Ministerial days in the doldrums whether or not he makes it to a second anniversary.

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