The next election is lost so Brown might as well take some risks

On the current political trajectory, Labour will go down to a heavy defeat at the next election. For this reason, it would be foolish in the extreme for Brown to carry on with his current approach: the polls show that it clearly isn’t working.

Brown should be prepared to try something completely different; it can hardly lead to a worse result. Matthew Taylor, the former Blair aide, has suggested that Brown should declare a ‘unilateral political ceasefire’ and concentrate solely on the economy. The theory being that the country would be impressed by the statesman-like action and give Brown until May 2010 to turn things around. But any effort to win back public trust on the economy is, as Bagehot argues, going to have to start with some recognition from Brown that he has made mistakes. As Bagehot writes:

“Mr Brown’s current, resolutely unapologetic approach isn’t working. The endless enumeration of recession-busting policies—the “Kirkcaldy telephone directory” method, as one wry observer describes it—just isn’t washing, as some in his own party seem to accept.