Home > The Magazine > The Week

Thursday 4 December 2008

Dare to dream and make your ultimate trip a reality

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value events

Click here for exclusive articles, offers, tasting notes and discussion

Some advice for Brown’s second year: find a John Reid and bring back Charles Clarke

Steve Richards

Wednesday, 25th June 2008

Steve Richards reviews the week in politics

Lord McNally says Mr Callaghan was much stronger than Mr Brown in one respect. The former PM always appeared confident in public, telling friends he was determined to appear as calm as a swan even if he was gliding on stormy currents underneath. In contrast Mr Brown seems often in his public appearances as uneasy as the turbulence around him. This is one aspect of his Prime Ministerial repertoire that he could easily change. No one is asking him to transform his personality into a lighthearted chat-show host, but to appear more publicly authoritative as he moves from one crisis to another. Perhaps a bit more sleep would do the trick. Exhausted leaders do not look as if they are on top of events.

Another card available to Mr Brown in the coming months is the Cabinet reshuffle. We must not get carried away by reshuffles. Few make any difference to the standing of a government. But there is one important appointment Mr Brown should make as a matter of urgency. One of the successes during John Major’s first administration, leading up to his election victory in 1992, was the role of Chris Patten as party chairman. The Labour leader at the time, Neil Kinnock, could not move before the unlikely figure of Mr Patten was on his back. Labour has no equivalent under Mr Brown. As a result the Conservatives get away with much more than they deserve.

Downing Street is more than aware of the yawning gap. ‘We need our John Reid’ is a common cry from Mr Brown’s senior allies. For much of Tony Blair’s period in power Mr Reid was the Secretary of State for the Today programme, calmly reassuring listeners that there was nothing to worry about when all hell was breaking loose. He was much more than that. Mr Reid was able to put Mr Blair’s defensively pragmatic leadership in compelling context. He once argued that Clem Attlee would have supported the war in Iraq and that Aneurin Bevan would be a passionate advocate of Mr Blair’s chaotic reforms of the NHS. Much of it was nonsense, but it was brilliant nonsense.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3 Next page

More articles from: Steve Richards | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (4)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

cuffleyburgers

June 27th, 2008 6:08pm

The economy may have been hi sbig project but there's not doubting he made a right royal mess of it, he brought chaos to everything he touched.

Anan

June 30th, 2008 8:57pm

The economy did "well" beacause of the golden legacy he achieved from Ken Clarke. And while he has pumped money into the public services, the vast majority of our money has gone into creating pen-pushing bureaucrats of limited intelligence and skill. Why do you liberal media idiots call yourselves "Independent" when you are so utterly left-wing, almost to the point of fascism (and not far off). Praise the stars that your entire medium is dying away, in no small part due to your descent into partisan cheerleading, shoddy journalism and worst of all, an extremely crap level of English. Good riddance, losers.

You and the rest of your eco-fascist colleagues will not missed.

Anan

June 30th, 2008 8:59pm

The economy did "well" beacause of the golden legacy that was handed to this joke of a chancellor/PM from Ken Clarke. And while he has pumped money into the public services, the vast majority of our money has gone into creating pen-pushing bureaucrats of limited intelligence and skill. Why do you liberal media idiots call yourselves "Independent" when you are so utterly left-wing, almost to the point of fascism (and not far off).

I praise the stars that your entire medium is dying away, in no small part due to your descent into partisan cheerleading, shoddy journalism and worst of all, an extremely crap level of English. Good riddance, losers.

You and the rest of your eco-fascist colleagues will not missed.

carol42

June 30th, 2008 11:46pm

One big difference between Brown and Callaghan and Major. Both these PMs were still generally liked even as their parties became hated and both fought a hard election to become leader. Brown was 'crowned' after years of undermining Blair and making sure no one was left to stand against him then having a Cabinet of nonenties so no one could outshine him - some joke that. Unlike the other two Brown is loathed, not only in England if the Scottish blogs are to be believed, and from the people I speak to, regardless of their political persuasion. I don't think there is any way back for him and no one left who could do any better. I just dread the scorched earth that he could leave in another two years.

Letters

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

Brown bets the farm

The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Pre-Budget Report (PBR) was one of the most arresting political events of modern times.

Diary

Hardeep Singh Kohli

Social networking: surely that has to be a tautology?

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody

Tamzin Lightwater

Tamzin Lightwater's unique take on the week

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

In his speech announcing his Pre-Budget Report, Alistair Darling said that he was going to put up the top rate of income tax to 45 per cent from 2011, because he wanted the burden to be borne by ‘those who have done best out of the growth of the past decade’.