Lucky Gordon
All leaders need luck and our future leader's just got lucky.
The long wait for him to move next door in Downing Street is protecting him and the government from the worst consequences of an extraordinary series of ministerial cock-ups. Since everyone knows a change is coming the impact of them - both individually and as a whole - has been diminished.
Imagine just for a moment if today's no confidence motion in the Health Secretary had come at any other time. The question would have been asked insistently - can Patricia Hewitt survive? I can find no-one who believes she'll still be in charge of the NHS in a few weeks time so today's debate takes on a certain ritualistic quality.
Or think about how yesterday's U-turn on Home Improvement Packs might have played?
And what about the revelation that the new secretary of state for justice only learnt about the creation of his new department from a newspaper report and was still in dispute with the most senior judges in the land?
The much talked of "stable and orderly transition" has sucked all the tension out of the air in the Westminster village.
Could that be why ministers are getting as many awkward announcements out of the way as possible before the great transition. Witness this week's politically tricky announcements on nuclear power, planning and road pricing.
This is not so much burying bad news as getting all of it out of the way whilst no-one much cares. Has Gordon Brown been lucky or is he proving the truth of that old cliche that you make your own luck?
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Comments
I should imagine he is counting himself very lucky indeed.
It's callesd professional politics.
In soccer, if you are 4-0 up, you take off your best players and blood youngsters. If you are relegated, you do the same. Little downside, good potential for upside.
It almost seems to me that you can only put out a sensible document if you have nothing to lose. The energy white paper is just that. It is intended to be provocative. That is what White Papers are for.
As a UK citizen, if that is how good decisions get made, then fine. But if it leads to more bad ones, then shame on the politicos.
Freedom of Information maybe won't slip through though?
Give it two minutes and your questions will no doubt be answered (inaccurately) by a plethora of egocentric blog commentees who think their opinion amounts to more than a tin of beans - which it doesn't.
Again the news of Wales may have a nationalist government ignored by Nick Robinson, you are a very sorry excuse for a political corrosponded, as the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is for a "Brtiish" Boardcaster
"No, no he's not the Messiah hes a very naughty boy!"
Not so much lucky, more a case of keeping his head down until the dust clears, hoping that the mud flies over without sticking. Just wait for more u-turns, direction changes, weird policy announcements over the next 6 weeks. Then all will be 'decided before I arrived, nothing to do with me' statements. Taking responsibility for nothing and blaming everyone else whilst trying to keep his halo clean. He just has to hope that it doesn't slip and strangle him.
Yes your right Nick. This has been a trademark of new labour. How can you have trust in a government when their very thinking is concentrated on deceptive game play? Brown is set to take the Baton from Blair and finish the job of implementing the EU constitution with road pricing being their very first EU tax thanks to their brand new EU satellites fulfilling their destiny. Wait until the EU Regional assemblies take over the councils and reassess everyones council tax encourage building now tax more later. Also the ability to build Nuclear power stations without planning permission is another little bonus.
Add to that the developments in the plans for the Presidential...sorry...government jet which have been outlined in papers today. It's also a bit of a pity, as it's just too late to be known as Blair Force One...
McCavity the Scottish cat rules OK; nowhere to be seen where there are problems.
Why change the habit of a lifetime?
@Joe Hind (comment 3)
"Give it two minutes and your questions will no doubt be answered (inaccurately) by a plethora of egocentric blog commentees.."
As opposed to those "commentees" who will just post snide comments about the other "commentees" perhaps? Or are you intending to descend from your Olympian heights to give us an authoritative and accurate comment?
Patricia Hewitt should not even be an MP. Her arrogance is outstanding and she already has a track record of errors prior to becoming an MP.
Getting rid of her might actual increase Labour's standing in the polls!
Of course its the old "good day to bury bad news" syndrome. Even more so if you include the Post Office announcement, which was brought forwards by a few weeks. Answers on a postcard if you think you know why this announcment was brought forward?
At last the press has noticed, Labour have been busy sweeping bad news under the carpet for the last couple of weeks. Handy week to slip out latest figures on the tax credits fiasco to give but one example.
Well, Nick you are the professional here but maybe you are simply too close to it to appreciate what is really going on.
IMO, all the signs have been there for quite a while that NL have lost any confidence in their ability to govern.
They are plumbing new depths of incompetence, almost on a daily basis, and I see no reason why it will not continue with Brown as PM.
In fact, I believe the foulups will accelerate.
Brown should never, ever have been running England.
Nevermind, it won't be for long.
Which leads me to agree with some of your other posters (and journalist Kevin Tooley), Wales is 'going nationalist' along with the Scots, but you ignore it.
Isn't the growing fragmentation of the so-called UK interesting to a professional political commentator?
Whenever scandals hit the headlines these days, I look behind them to see what is really going on, usually it is EU legistlation. As to Lord Faulkner not knowing about the home office split -I knew, he could have asked me ! On 29th March I printed off a page from EU.Euopa/gov.website.
It is a table of all member states which have a Ministry of Justice & Ministry of the Interior , the UK was already on that list on that date... Lord F. is welcome to a copy if he wants one.
The politics of it all could be discussed to some purpose for many hours but, that aside, the overriding feeling is that of a government who cannot manage.
Ten years ago there may have been some excuse but not now. There must have always been ministers with shortcomings but the civil service used to deal with that.
Is it the civil service that's changed or are they now not heeded?
Don't worry Nick-Gordon Brown will have his fair share of scandals,cock-ups and crises before very long has passed I'm quite sure.Politics will return as normal in a few weeks time.
I don't think he is that lucky - the Government's reputation (such as it was) is taking a battering over these serial blunders. It won't be that easy for a Brown administration to shrug off the air of incompetence which has dogged Labour since the last election.
Don't worry everybody. I suspect there will be plenty of problems in GBs reign of tax & terror.
He can't hide the fact that interest rates are likely to remain high (6% or more) for a year or two causing increasing wage demands in the public sector as the private sector pays up to their workers resulting in higher inflation and an increase in government spending.
He can do nothing about the fact that the NHS, education, prisons, crime, immigration etc are all problems waiting to happen after 10 years of government by limited and often misplaced targets.
And finally he can do nothing about the fact that as a Scottish MP he will be ruling, designing and interfering with our education, crime and other matters, none of which will have an iota of effect on his constituents because they are governed from Scotland on these issues. What a perfect situation for an MP to be in. He/she can have a strong view on a controversial issue without being bothered by what his/her constituents think because they won't care about it as it won't affect them.
So despite Labours attempt to out their worst secrets whilst there is an effective amnesty, there is plenty of politics waiting for GB to move into number 10.
If the strategy is as you suggest, then you are not doing much to counter the New Labour spin. How about a real life interview with Mr Brown or another Minister rather than just accepting what they say and do with minimal critique. For example, this morning the news reports are full of the lost terrorists, yet the Home Office declined to put up a spokesperson for interview. If they insist on this, and Brown is perhaps the worst offender, then decline to interview them merely when they have some banal policy announcement. In other words, how about some good old fashioned journalism. I would suggest that you ask Mr Brown why it is that we have Ministers announcing that they are going, yet carrying on collecting their full salary, however policy cannot be advanced because no one knows who is next in charge. I resent paying the wages of the over inflated egos, and I count Blair, Prescott, Reid, Hewitt, Alexander and Kelly firmly amongst these.
This is not an 'extraordinary series of ministerial cock-ups', Nick - it has become par for the course for this 'Lets-rush-out-some-new-legislation/guidelines-without-thinking-the-matter-through' government.
John Constable (#13) wrote:
"Brown should never, ever have been running England."
Isn't it a truism that nobody who wants power that much should be allowed anywhere near it?
Thats actually quite selfless of them, you'd think they'd leave the difficult announcments till after Gordon took over and cross their fingers that they'll be moved to another department
Dear John and others of that Ilk,
Dropped in hoping to find some serious and thoughtful comment. Didn't expect to find Telegraph readers, lost in their obsessive lack of appreciation of us Celts, out there in Beeb cyberspace.
Frankly lads you disappoint. You whinge and that is all, you simply whinge. You are tedious, boring and so not amusing. Try offering a few grown up suggestions, if not solutions.
Just be greatful your current masters are Scots; not Saxons, Angles, Vikings, Normans, Stuarts, Dutch, Hanovarians, SaxeCoburg Gothe or Belgian; and start appreciating us.
I'm with you Geraint. If I had relied on certain media oulets for information I'd probably never have realised Wales existed, or even Scotland and I've lived here for fifty years!
Will drop in again if I get a whiff of political maturity, until then I'll just slope off and drink this week's UK subsidy.
Slange.
The anti-Scots debaters have invaded this blog now!
True, some policies put in place (especially transport) do not affect Scotland as bad as England. I know, I travel to England on business.
But the media are stirring up a lot of the debates as it makes more interesting reading. Alex Salmond doesn't help matters either, and GB does not have the "public image" to deal with our egotistic First Minister effectively.
PFI is the big issue that will soon bite everyone on the backside. And GB will not be able to hide.
He's certainly a lot luckier than all the people who borrowed money to train themselves to be a HIPS inspector and now find themselves out of work.
He's certainly luckier than those destined to spend their days on a mixed ward or having trained for a decade to be a doctor, out of a job.
Whether or not Gordon Brown is 'Lucky' enough to have an extraordinary amount of bad news burried before he comes to power it doesn't alter the fact that all of these problems will have to be dug up again and dealt with.
Give it two minutes and your questions will no doubt be answered (inaccurately) by a plethora of egocentric blog commentees who think their opinion amounts to more than a tin of beans - which it doesn't.
JOe Hind.
1. For those trying to discern public opinion, ignorance is just as valuable to detect as knowledge.
2. Democracy is about expressing your opinion, allowing those who evaluate the totality of opinion to come to a judgment. My opinion, just like anyone else's, is my opinion. Nothing more. Sounds as if you want oligarchy or tyranny!
3. Hope you don't have any children -if you behaved to them like that any enthusiasm would have curled up and died by the age of 12. Perhaps dutiful obedience is what you seek from your offspring?
4. The aim of a blog is to solicit comments - if no comments are made, why have it?
5. Any politician who actually expresses a real opinion nowadays is out of a job within weeks!
I would just like the opportunity to clear something up.
I am not anti-Scottish (or Welsh) at all.
In fact, I admire the work that Alex Salmond and the SNP are doing in taking Scots to where they rightfully belong - the road to self-determination.
I simply object to professional Scottish politicians who ply their trade in another country - England.
I don't think I'm being unreasonable in asking for English people to run England.
PS. I do NOT read the Torygraph either or the Daily Wail!
Why isn't GB being taken to task on what he means by "social justice"? Remember his 1997 speeches about a "new fairer society"? As far I see it he doesn't know the meaning of the phrase. What's so just about not changing the regressive council tax system when he had ample opportunity to do so over the last decade, and then worsening the situation in his last budget by removing the 10% band?
Instead, we've had nothing but political expedience - GB blaming the councils and the councils blaming him, and the tax burden increasing all the time. According to today's newspapers, it seems the councils are intent on increasing the burden further. At least the Scots are willing to debate the council tax.
Has anyone bothered to ask Gordon Brown (or just Slopey, as in "slopey shoulders" from now on) a few direct questions recently?
What has been Slopey's involvement in the seemingly unlimited number of cock-ups that this Government has made over the past 10 years? How does he explain the tax credits fiasco? What is the total PFI debt to taxpayers following the decision to transfer these costs off the Treasury balance sheet?
To Dave fae Dundee (whatever that means) I'm not anti Scottish. I wonder what he would think if an MP elected in, say Surrey, was allowed to become First Minister of Scotland. I suspect he might have a few words tae say ayboot it...
Dear Chris Wills,
I couldn't possibly comment.
a. I've no idea what or where a Surrey is, though it does sound as if it belongs behind a horse.
b. Do you really have elections down there? I got the impression it was turn and turn about at Westminster, with the same things being done and said by both parties when in power.
c. While I do, I really do, sympathise with your ire at a percieved democratic deficit, I would urge you not to give up hope but instead rejoice, as Maggie once said, in the benefits bestowed upon your country by the Union.
d. It only took us 290 years to begin to redress our democratic deficit so, with a little luck, it won't take you much longer than that to deal with yours.
Stiff upper lip and all that old chap. Free translation service provided for any monoglots, like yourself, on request.
Slainthe.