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Politics

Fraser Nelson

Wednesday, 19th November 2008

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

Given that Gordon Brown spent his adult life plotting to get into 10 Downing Street, he has been understandably quiet about his decision to leave it. Tony Blair’s old office certainly brought him rotten luck, and his new open-plan base in Number 12 has far better feng shui for a man of his disposition. There he sits as the leader of the gang, within stapler-hurling distance of about a dozen aides. It looks and feels like a general election campaign headquarters, the environment in which, historically, Mr Brown has been at his happiest and most deadly. He is already at war.

For the second time in his career momentum is behind him, as unexpected as it is undeserved. Mr Brown’s audacity, his most remarkable characteristic, is serving him well. Here stands the architect of Britain’s debt pyramid and its inept banking regulation system posing as the solution to the problems he himself incubated. The sheer chutzpah which allowed him to pose as a world financial leader at the G20 in Washington may well take him through to the Pre-Budget Report on Monday, applying a triumphant Keynesian spin to what is an abject budgetary failure.

With each of the Prime Minister’s gravity-defying successes, the likelihood of a January election grows stronger. It would be an extraordinary time for an election, yet that very singularity would play to Mr Brown’s favoured theme: namely, that there is a national economic emergency. Even in the depths of winter, he could easily argue that he needed a new and explicit five-year mandate to implement his rescue plan. And most of all, it would get the electorate into the polling booths before the really bad news breaks.

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alastair harris

November 21st, 2008 1:35pm

but surely a january 2009 election would be the biggest hypocracy of all? I thought he was supposed to be getting on with saving the planet? How does he square an election with that?

Paul

November 21st, 2008 1:42pm

I think Fraser suggested it ; "needing 5 years to fix the problem" (para.). Reality is, of course, anything to cling onto power.

God help us all if this incompetent buffoon gets in again. Can you imagine the wreck he will make of the economy when all his short term kludges come due ?

Dave B

November 21st, 2008 2:13pm

Labour can call an election whenever they like, they'll still lose it.

Daniel

November 21st, 2008 5:56pm

Osborne's real problem is that he has lost the support of the City, which recognises that the current downturn is much more severe than previous recessions which have generally occurred in a context where the markets have lost confidence in a Government's ability to manage the public finances and control inflation. In these circumstances, orthodox (Thatcherite) economic policy works. But that's not the situation we face here. There are well grounded fears in the markets that some of the world's largest capitalist institutions, such as Citicorp, Ford and General Motors may not survive. It is a crisis of capitalism, not socialism. Against this background, the Tories' insistence that spending cuts are the answer borders on the lunatic. Yes, public finances do need to be saved, but first of all we need to save the economy. The Tories'ideological rejection of Keynesianism in the current crisis shows that their "brand" has, in fact, become contaminated again. Unfortunately Labour seem to be grasping the opportunities this provides in an entirely predictable manner.