October 10, 2007
You promised us a vision, Gordon - when will we see it?
Gordon Brown has set a lot of store on giving Britain more time to see his vision for the future before he holds a general election.
This has obviously left him open to mockery from David Cameron, who ridiculed Mr Brown’s suggestion that this vision was so important that even the prospect of a 100-seat Commons majority would not have persuaded him to hold an election next month.
"He is the only prime minister in history to flunk an election because he thought he was going to win it," scoffed Mr Cameron, as Mr Brown squirmed his way through a terrible half an hour at prime ministers’ questions.
Mr Cameron’s attack would strike home even if Mr Brown had a clear vision (everyone knows he aborted the election because his pollsters said he would have a majority as low as 20). But what if Mr Brown doesn’t actually have - or can’t articulate - a vision?
Mr Brown’s first 90 days in office (before the election fiasco) were brilliant in the sense he presented himself as "the change" from Tony Blair: no spin, straightforward, big tent, competent etc. A lot of that good work has now been undone, of course, by the events of the last fortnight.
But what exactly is his strategy for changing Britain? His Labour conference speech, which received positive coverage at the time, has now been reassessed in the media as being rather hollow and lacking a big strategic idea.
The pre-budget report - a chance for the government to map out its economic strategy - saw Alistair Darling, chancellor, rummaging around under the mattress to try to keep health spending going, but most of the best lines were stolen from the Tories.
As Jonathan Freedland in today’s Guardian asks: "You’ve had had long enough to work it out. What is your vision, Gordon?"
The prime minister, having surrendered the political momentum to David Cameron in a dramatic way in the last few days, needs to find the answer soon. The restless body language of Labour MPs behind him in the Commons today suggests their patience is not limitless.
As the gospel song goes “Oh happy day” or rather week. Such a pleasure to see the opposition actually opposing and attacking the government, and may it continue until New Labour are swept from power. In the meantime Cameron should do the vision thing but keep policies underwraps otherwise Bottler Brown will steal then. Detailed policies should be revealed at election time.
Posted by: Peter | October 11th, 2007 at 12:11 am | Report this comment