The Economist: Is Gordon Brown doomed?

The Economist sells shares in Brown tomorrow - its front cover will ask ‘Is Gordon Doomed?’ and its lead article will pretty much say that he is. “Mr Brown can scarcely complain about disloyalty, for he helped to inculcate a taste for plots and mutinies during his long march to Downing Street,” it states. Unless Brown gets a grip, “he will go down in history as the worst sort of political failure: the sort who schemes to get a job and then has no idea what to do with it.” Read the Economist leader here (pdf)

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Out now: Issue 1 of the Spectator Business

We’ve just released the first issue of the monthly Spectator Business magazine. You can access all of its content online – just head over here to check it out.

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Has Brown broken the New Labour pact?

Frank Field’s piece in the magazine is one of the most interesting analyses of New Labour and its character I have read: Frank’s point is that the Blair Project was not primarily presentational but contractual. The architects of New Labour – Gordon Brown prime among them – agreed to hold true to certain core values in return for the party’s compliance over a radical programme of internal modernisation. The abolition of the 10p tax rate, he continues, violates this contract and marks out a gulf of “clear red water” between Government and...

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The charm offensive continues

Oh dear. Another unnerving TV-appearance from Gordon Brown today – this time on ‘This Morning’ with Fern Britton (you can watch it here). As Britton says, it’s “an opportunity for [Brown] to be a human being”…

The ITV morning chat-show may not be known for rigorous political interviewing, but Britton is surprisingly tenacious. When Brown’s talking about “political instability in the Middle East” being behind rising fuel prices, she interjects: “Yes, but how much tax do you put on the fuel?” Brown’s taken...

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Boris' new recruits

The latest hire for Boris is Patience Wheatcroft, former Sunday Telegraph editor. She will lead a “forensic audit panel” into exactly what Mayor Ken got up to. The rest of the board are good people: Stephen Greenhalgh, leader of low-taxing Hammersmith Council, who will have a fair idea of where bodies are buried, and ditto Edward Lister, Leader of Wandsworth Council.

It may sound daft having a journalist lead this, but Wheatcroft’s appointment makes more sense than first meets the eye. I used to work for her when she was Business Editor at...

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