The Fall and Rise of the Brownites

At Labour Uncut, Dan Hodges has written a very good, very interesting piece on the demise of the Brownites and how, when the end came, Brown was compelled to rely upon Peter Mandelson and Alistair Campbell to scramble a strategy by which Labour might miraculously cling to power. As Hodges portrays it:

As the battlements yielded, what of his own praetorian guard? Where were his champions, his own retinue of advisors?

The collapse of the Brownite inner-circle, as a political event distinct from the fall of Brown himself, is one of the strange untold stories of the Labour government.  If, as is generally perceived, Gordon was one of the two  pillars of New Labour, then those around him were fundamental to New Labour’s success. Like them or loathe them, the Brownites constructed the economic programme and strategy that brought us to power. They successfully drove through that  programme when in office, while simultaneously strengthening Brown’s personal grip on the succession.