Fix your departure date now, Gordon, and give your legacy a chance

Elizabeth Elliot-Pyle

The words "is an adviser to the Ledbury Group and was Director of the Strategic Communications unit in Downing Street...." tell us all we need to know about this writer.
Also as a "director of...communications" he is not terribly good at communicating is he?

Mike, Brighton

Delusional. Sorry Benjy, the games up and your team has been found out.
The thought that after the utter financial incontinence of Brown that he is the man to cut into Labour's big government is laughable, incredible, beneath contempt. It is the same as asking a chronic alcoholic to advise on temperance.

David Short

'Benjamin Wegg-Prosser Is An Adviser To The Ledbury Group And Was Director Of The Strategic Communications Unit In Downing Street From 2005 To 2007.'

Yes, enough said. I wonder who commissioned this buffoon to take up valuable space? And capping up the prepositions and indefinite articles in the description of his job and former role won't big him up any more as a commentator.

Or is that just the fault of a dopey 'text processor' on the Spectator staff?

Peter M

What an utterly foolish article! The useless Brown has been in office for what, 11 months? and we're talking about his legacy?

We all know his legacy - vast overspending, unrecoverable debt, destroyed pensions, gross over-taxation, U turns, backstabbing, lies and incompetence.

I would imagine no-one in the country will want to remember this particular Prime Minister and the history books in many years time will write him off as a pathetic no-hoper who rose well beyond his level of competence.

d green

As a political junkie and an obsessive reader of the political columns, this is the first time I have read BWP's name in about 4 years. A real blast from the past.

A man whose political career seemed to have quietly ended before it even got off the ground - and no wonder, having read this article. None of it makes any sense. I think BWP just needed the few hundred quid and had time on his hands. Why The Spectator commisioned this piece, I have no idea.

Dr. Gautam Sen

The Brown legacy is a bitter joke for the middle class, with astronomic taxes, direct and stealth, with so little to show for them. Try a hugely expensive hospital car park, which necessitates the sick first search for the correct coins before availing medical help.Judge the captured regulators, from the FSA to a Ofcom, toothless in New Labour's socialist, Chabli-swilling Islington fastness! Can anyone associated with this legacy be taken seriously?

Rod Jones

A masterstroke to publish this piece of drivel which shows perfectly the levels of self-delusion that now envelop New Labour. I am a little concerned however that there is some legislation in the works that we've not been told about to delay a General Election, as Mr Wegg-Prosser imagines that Brown can simply name a date in the middle of the next decade for a departure without any interference from voters. He might now like to consult the latest Gallup poll - 23% and still going down.

Tapestry

I thought this piece must be a joke including the author's name - but then I remembered that it's 2008 and everything is very serious. Brown The Great must be taken seriously by all - except a few misguided voters who think he's Mr Bean.

Ben Philips

It's Friday afternoon, I'm bored and I'm sitting in the office waiting for the 5 o'clock rush. Let's de-construct some of this garbage:

"Having made the argument successfully in 1997 to correct historic levels of government underinvestment"

Oh dear - if this is where your premise begins we really have no hope. Government expenditure in real terms rose year on year from 1979-1997 with record levels of investment in the NHS in particular. It is true that government spending shrank as a proportion of GDP but that is a desirable objective. It suggests the real economy grew more quickly than central government expenditure which must be a good thing and made us more competitive. Just look at the government finances: in 1997 we had a surplus of £40-£50bn. Today we're in the red to the same amount. And that's after 10 years of uninterrupted economic growth. And yet the problems still remain. Unbelievably government expenditure actually seems to make things worse!

"Mr Brown now needs to update this approach. Whereas ten years ago Labour convinced the public that government action was the necessary panacea for most problems, they now need more targeted schemes, with a focus on entitlement rather than universality"

Yes because there's no more money left. He's taxed and spent his way into a cul-de-sac -like every previous Labour administration and the taxpayer is flat broke. So now in a last desperate bit to cling on to power, he's now forced to talk about choice and value for money - ideas utterly alien to the left.

I could go on but you get the point.

Time for a re-think Mr Benjamin Whoeveryouare.

jon livesey

Other comments have made similar points, but Brown's real problem is that what you "convince" the voters of is not a permanent state of affairs.

New Labour ran on the notion of "underinvestment" in public services. But if you are any age at all, you can recall when teachers did a bang-up job with a blackboard and a piece of chalk, whereas today's semi-literates emerge from new purpose-built schools with computers, science labs, and on and on.

In other words, what you do with money is much more important than the "investment" quantity itself.

Old Labour had an ideology and true believers who stuck with them no matter how badly socialism failed. New Labour had "investment" and temporary support from voters who had only conditional committment, and who are abandoning ship as "investment" without good management is shown not to lead to better services.

And that's about it. The blood is running thin, the Sun is rising, and it's time to get back into the coffin.

'Yar

Is the PM facing troubles of his own making or did market economics and global factors outside his contol have a hand? Britain, give Gord a chance. (Hmmm, perhaps I can say this because I do not live in the UK)

Gerry Grattan

This man can't even write a proper sentence in English! Little help here for Gordon Brown or, I imagine, for Ledbury Group. Why on earth have does he have a whole Speccy page for his illiterate nonsense?

Tankus

If this is an example of the mindset of nu labours advisor's then its not really a surprise that flash gordons getting flushed , along with the UK's economy ...right down the khazi ....

The country now has a sub prime economy run by a sub prime labour party ...boarderline insolvent unless it thinks up some quick ways of deviously getting its mitts on cash before next months bills come in , each new idea getting nearer to the line of immorality or illegality as its desperation increases ....

We have already past the point of no return , and no amount of spin is going to cover it.

The only thing left for gordon to do ..is maximise his expense claims and pension pot and look forward to spending a lot of time with his kid ....

I wonder what his liabilities will be if his party goes bust , and hes still at its head ... punitive ..I hope