This is how you should use your reprieve, Gordon

10 June 2009

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Irwin Stelzer says the PM should seize the opportunity presented by this stay of execution: plot a path to fiscal sanity, cut red tape and restore Britain’s stature on the world stage

Finally, he could use the next year to restore Britain to the puncher-above-its-weight that it once was. After the Prime Minister prevented the military from discharging its responsibility in Basra, and turned down Obama’s request for more fighting troops — not mere poll-watchers — Britain’s underfunded military is no longer regarded as an essential or competent ally, certainly not in the United States. End quangos and give the money to the nation’s brave soldiers; crack down on the job-shy, even with James Purnell gone, and use the savings for the soldiers. Surely this Prime Minister more than any that preceded him can find the fat and convert it into military muscle. And renewed respect in the world.

There is more, and if Gordon Brown concentrates on how he will be viewed by those who will write the history of the New Labour era, he will find other things to do. That requires rising above the petty concerns that have somehow distracted him from the pursuit of a reputation in which his children could take pride when they gather round him on a cold Christmas in Kirkcaldy some years hence.

Irwin Stelzer is director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute and a columnist for the Sunday Times.

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Rhoda Klapp

June 11th, 2009 1:40pm Report this comment

Well, this is daft. If GB could do this, then he wouldn't be the Gordon we've come to know and despise. If he announced those things as policy, we wouldn't trust him to carry them through, for we can remember all the previous policies which were only for (multiple) announcement, never implementation. He is not going to change. Or see the light. If he did, I would rather suspect some sort of cybernetic replacement than the real Gordon.

Daragh Nugent

June 11th, 2009 2:00pm Report this comment

No need to go to Israel or Italy to learn about PR. A short trip across the Irish Sea will do it. Horsetrading in back rooms is back.

Tom Johnston

June 11th, 2009 10:25pm Report this comment

Drivel, I can find no other word for it.

Ian Girvan

June 12th, 2009 9:19pm Report this comment

Irwin Stelzer must have had his tongue rammed into his cheek when he wrote this. We all know that Brown is incapable of taking any of the measures he advocates. And therein lies Brown's madness; even now, it would be an election-winning formula.

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