Anthony Barnett (London, OK): On Friday Tom Nairn decided he has to raise a yet another glass to the modern world and start a blog. In it he turns to Brown in a post called 'Their Kingdom" (ouch!) What Gordon is looking for, Nairn argues, is "A new National Government: the principal 20th century palliative for crises and emergencies. Some cross-partyism is required again, to save Britishness. This is why he has lurched so suddenly towards the Lib-Dems, and in effect invited them into informal coalition. He was indicating that higher necessities must now take over — higher even than those of the Party, his normal modus operandi".
And this is what Brown told Jon Soper today in the Politics Show interview I discuss below, "The challenge of modern politics is to build a sense of national purpose… the role I have got to play is to bringing people together to make sure we Britain has a strong sense of national purpose as other countries do".
