Politics

Wednesday, 18th February 2009

James Forsyth reviews the week in politics

The worst thing about this week for Gordon Brown is that no one has bothered to dub it his worst week ever. Normally, a few days which saw a Prime Minister receive the succession of blows that Brown has suffered since Saturday would lead to forests being chopped down and extra barrels of newsprint being ordered in. But we have now reached a political moment where it can be revealed that the government is reduced to querying David Cameron’s name when it appears on Number 10 party guest lists, a key government policy adviser defects to the Tories, someone ‘quite close to the inner core’ (rumoured to be Harriet Harman) floats the idea that Brown will quit to go and head up a new international body, and the Tories open up a 20-point poll lead — and it is treated as business pretty much as usual. Even the obvious tension between Peter Mandelson’s comments in a speech in New York on Tuesday that governments must not ‘be pushed into hurried judgments’ on bankers’ bonuses, and the Chancellor’s hurried announcement on the very same topic, failed to attract much attention.

This lack of interest is explained by the fact that nearly everyone in Westminster now thinks this government is done. On the Tory side, the conversation is all about how they should run things in office, and whether Tony Blair went too far or not far enough in politicising the government machine. On the Labour side, it is about where the party should go in the leadership election that will follow the coming defeat. Brown, to borrow a phrase used by another former chancellor, is in office but not in power.

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Ray

February 19th, 2009 9:44am Report this comment

On both the economy and the broken society, Cameron absolutely has to tell it like it is and be bold in administering the required cure.

The only consolation amidst such pain is that he will hopefully seize every opportunity to remind the electors precisely which party has got us into this mess in the first place.

NorthernJohn

February 19th, 2009 12:38pm Report this comment

John Redwood for Head of the OBR.

Any other suggestions?

martin

February 20th, 2009 12:26am Report this comment

This nulabor government is corrupt. The nulabor corruption is absolute, lead from the top down, imposed through all tiers of social and government control, down to street level. Being rotten to the core and from the core, everything it touches it taints. Having neither the ability nor inclination to correct itself, outside intervention is indicated.

Mark Solomon

February 20th, 2009 12:42am Report this comment

Perhaps the silver lining in the cloud is that with the necessity for spending cuts, perhaps the obscenity of the UK welfare/benefits system will be tackled - this will have the double benefit of helping economically and also dealing with much of the Broken Society agenda, given that it is the welfare system that has encouraged this behaviour. Hopefully the urgency of the economic situation will give the once in a lifetime political cover necessary to tackle this most sacred of sacred cows. Given that the bleating will be loud whatever is done but that Labour will be reeling from defeat, rapid radical steps here are necessary before inertia sets in.

Otherwise the country really is doomed.

Is it too much to hope too that the importance of the economic disaster will also enable frivolous nonsense like the climate change agenda to be quietly thrown under the (diesel-powered) bus?

Colin Wilkinson

February 20th, 2009 1:25pm Report this comment

Five key points for David Cameron
1, Scrap our commitment to the Lisbon Treaty.
2,Reduce number of MP's and massively cut generous rewards.
3,Initiate an investigate into the Iraq debacle and hand over the findings to the DPP.
4. Make the country live within its means no matter how painful.
5. Construct a fully elected second chamber and remove the term Lord from its members.

A second term in office would follow

Donna

May 4th, 2009 10:36am Report this comment

I can very easily see the new Tory govt not rising to this - admittedly gargantuan - challenge due precisely to the fact that the leadership is so softly softly. If that happens, I fear we're in for a decade of bouncing between one term governments until someone comes along with enough vision and force of personality to do what's really needed.

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