Politics

“I think Brown’s character, specifically the lack of charisma or warmth will prevent him being able to bring it back. When problems hit Brown will never be able get away with a winning smile and a “I’m a pretty straight sort of guy” or “well, John is John”, he can’t charm he was out of problems, can’t convince people that, whatever has gone wrong, he is fundamentally a decent chap doing his best. Neither has he yet shown any ability to project a vision or purpose for his government that the public can relate to, perhaps in other circumstances that wouldn’t matter, competence would be enough, but to differentiate himself

Jonathan Freedland has a typically smart piece on what Gordon Brown needs to do in 2008 in this morning’s Guardian. Freedland writes, “We will not vote on him this year, but after only six months in office – three that saw him soar, three that saw him plunge – we will form a settled view of him in 2008. If the Mr Bean tag sticks, he will be finished. He needs, at the very minimum, a few solid months of steady, unruffled, even dull competence: no more Northern Rocks, missing discs or tangled donations. Desperately required is a spell of quiet, so that the serial misfortunes of the autumn come

I was on BBC Radio Four’s Talking Politics today with Anne McElvoy of the Standard and Michael White of the Guardian – and Dennis Sewell in the chair. During it I made a point which I had thought uncontroversial: how close Cameron came to political destruction last autumn.   My theory is that if Brown had called that election, he’d have won. Cameron bluffed beautifully at Blackpool: his Etonian fearlessness saved him and his party. But his bold new policies would not have withstood the scrutiny of an election campaign (especially the back-of-the-envelope figures about non doms). A defeated Cameron would have had to quit, and the topic of discussion

Andrew Rawnsley’s column in The Observer on how Gordon Brown undid all the good work of the early months of his premiership with the election that never was is essential reading. As Rawnsley puts it, “the election debacle was shattering to his credibility and authority. It was like one of those sci-fi movies where a mad scientist throws a switch and all the polarities are instantly reversed. Virtually overnight, Gordon Brown had alchemised his positives into negatives.”  Today, a Labour overall majority after the next election is far less likely than an overall Conservative one—this is remarkable given just how many seats the Tories have to win to obtain a majority.

With the news that Tony Blair joined the Roman Catholic church last night in a ceremony led by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, I’d thoroughly recommend reading—or re-reading—Fraser Nelson’s piece on  the attitude of some Catholics in this country to Blair’s conversion. You might also be interested in Stuart Reid’s thoughts on the matter which he aired just before Blair left office.

Alistair Darling was brought on to be a grey, unremarkable chancellor. He’s fast turning into the Nick Leeson of British politics. Leeson, you will remember, was the rogue trader who played double or quits – hoping his small mistake would go away if he gambled even more. But he ended up sinking Barings. Darling should have allowed Northern Rock to be flogged to Lloyds when he had the chance. This small mistake led to a £30bn loan. Today, he’s doubled it to £60bn. And remember, he cannot guarantee the safe return of this cash – your money. The City is awash with rumours of the utter chaos going on behind