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Saturday 17 May 2008

Leading article

Brown’s fatal flaws

The Spectator on Gordon Brown's premiership

Mr Brown was in a uniquely strong position then because he appeared to offer change, competence and integrity. But the promise of change was undermined by the flagrant way in which Mr Brown and his ministers toyed with the electorate in September, debating where ‘the gamble’ lay when it came to calling an election. The way in which Team Brown were revealing themselves as cynical manipulators of public opinion, treating voters as counters in some sort of game, reminded voters powerfully of the sort of approach to politics which was supposed to have departed with Campbell and Mandelson. When Gordon Brown eventually decided to call off the election, cynicism was compounded by weakness. And then when he tried to maintain that his decision had nothing to do with worsening poll ratings, the impression of cynicism and weakness was reinforced by a recognition that the Prime Minister couldn’t bring himself to be honest with the British people when he came under pressure.

That fragility under pressure has been highlighted again and again since that fatal, Hamletic, moment when the Prime Minister’s resolution was sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought. The Prime Minister’s irascibility at the dispatch box, the defensiveness in his reaction to well-founded concerns from our most senior military men, the manner in which he tried to turn an apology for incompetence at the HMRC into a partisan attack on the Conservatives, all underscore that lack of breadth and ballast, that absence of strength and resilience, which a Prime Minister needs.

These weaknesses might matter less if the Prime Minister had a compelling vision, a narrative which could sustain him in office through the hard times, a reason why we should believe in him. But as his Queen’s Speech demonstrated, there is very little there. His education reforms amount to diluting Blairite radicalism while seeking to criminalise damaged teenagers whom the system has already failed. His housing reforms amount to creating two new quangos and not making the planning system any easier for those who want to build family homes. The theme of aspiration which is supposed to unite these policy areas is fatally undercut by the inept way in which the Chancellor is handling tax reform, penalising small entrepreneurs through changes to Capital Gains Tax.

There will be further dramatic twists certainly, further evolutions of the plot, further alarums and excursions before the curtain comes down, but for those of us watching the Prime Minister perform it is now clear we are witnessing a tragedy — and the bloodletting has not yet ended.

There will be further dramatic twists certainly, further evolutions of the plot, further alarums and excursions before the curtain comes down, but for those of us watching the Prime Minister perform it is now clear we are witnessing a tragedy – and the bloodletting has not yet ended…

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