Gordon Brown wants to style himself as the leader Britain needs for the coming ‘economic war’. His political survival depends on persuading, one might use another word here, the electorate that only he has the toughness, experience and knowledge to lead us out of this financial turmoil.
I suspect that Brown will get a boost for being in charge and appearing to have a plan at the moment. But when this crisis turns into a recession, the public will turn on Brown. Charles Moore comes up with a brilliant analogy for Brown’s predicament in his Telegraph column today:
PS One wonders what possessed William Hague to fly out and join the Barclays Wealth event in Italy even after it had become a focus of tabloid ire about the excesses of bankers. It is unbelievably foolish for the Tories to make unforced errors at a time when Brown sees an opening to revive his premiership.“This week he resembles Neville Chamberlain in September 1939. He has declared war, and he is our leader and we wish him luck. But we know that it was his mistakes that helped get us into it. And when something goes seriously wrong in the way we fight the war, we shall want a new, less tainted leader, who will be able to win it.”
Comments