May 12 2007
Gordon Brown is just a better spinner than Tony Blair
It is amazing how some in the media have fallen for the Brown spin that things are now going to be better if he is Prime Minister.
Like many journalists, I like what Gordon Brown is saying about the need to strengthen Parliament, the need to make Ministers more accountable, and above all the need to give people power over their public services, allied to more choice.
The question they should be asking, is why should we believe him when he says he will do any of that?
??Gordon Brown has been responsible for some of the most successful and most misleading soundbites of the Blair/Brown spin years.
Let me translate for you:
made the Bank of England independent, creating economic stability? took away the powers and responsibilities of the Bank to regulate the banks in the UK, overrode the Bank’s advice on how to manage the foreign exchange reserves (losing us a fortune on selling gold) and set up a Monetary Policy Committee which he influences both by choosing the members and by changing the target when it suits him. As a result the UK has had higher interest rates on average over the last 10 years than Japan, the USA and Euroland, and has higher inflation.
No more Tory boom and bust? - refers to the bad period when on the advice of the Labour party, the CBI, the TUC and the rest of the UK establishment the Conservative government wrongly linked the pound to the DM, causing first inflation then high interest rates and recession. Gordon Brown has never apologised for giving the wrong advice the Conservatives have apologised for making such a bad mistake.
The test of his latest soundbites to create a more humble and accountable government are:
??1. What new powers and opportunities are going to be given to Parliament to cross examine and challenge Ministers?
2. What will he do to a Minister who has failed to deliver or who has failed to convince many in Parliament?
3. Has he grasped how angry Parliament is about all the pensioners who have lost out under his private sector pensions regime, and will he now do something to help resolve the crisis?
The tests of his admirable idea to give people more power over and choice of public service are:
1. Will he promote many more places at good schools, and the closure of unpopular schools?
2. Will he allow NHS patients to go to any NHS doctor or consultant of their choice?
3. Will he allow NHS patients to get their operation or treatment in the private sector, with the NHS paying the average NHS cost?
4. Will he recreate assisted places at independent schools for talented children from lower income families? If not, what is he proposing to give people power and choice?
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Regrettably, Labour was elected on the basis of a manifesto. If Brown plans to change that he should be duty bound to call a general election and seek a fresh mandate from the people. If he is saying that by changes in the operation of government he can make a fresh start and bring about improvements why has he not done this already? After all, hasn’t he looked after domestic policy for the last ten years whilst Blair “strode the foreign stage”? The question of trust or, to be more specific, the lack of trust in politicians is a key factor in determining the eventual outcome of the next general election. Brown has much to do to show that his reputation for operating by stealth is unwarranted.
PS I enjoyed reading your article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph.
[Reply]
JR, Am I correct in saying that Brown maybe the first leader to become PM since Sir Alec Douglas-Home emerged from magic circle and went on to be PM, without a formal election from either the party or the country ? An odd bedfellow for Brown, the avowed socialist I would have thought ?
Although, you could argue Home was elected as an MP by the voters of Kinross & West Perthshire in 1963, so even he had more democratic legitimacy than Brown.
[Reply]