Just a better form of Blairism?

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): I am proud to report that Henry Porter quotes me in today’s Observer. We were talking about the BBC interview with Gordon Brown and I expressed my fears on watching it (as posted) . “I suspect that Anthony Barnett of openDemocracy is right when he says Brown merely represents ‘a better organised form of Blairism’”, he quotes me as saying. I also agree with Henry that I suspect this is so. Unlike my friend Tom Nairn I do not yet believe that this is proven. By Blairism, I mean the personalist form of rule that bends, or seeks to bend, all institutions to your will, rather than believing in the plural structures necessary for a democratic state and a free people.  In the BBC interview, Brown had a chance to reflect not just on the need to consult and persuade rather than “pulling levers” to get the outcomes he wanted, but to observe that the experience of the last ten years shows that the British regime is structurally flawed. Is it possible that he could still surprise us on this score at the end of this week? Yes it is. He has the intelligence and capacity to understand the argument and act on it. Very few politicians do. It will be a tragedy if he does not.