Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Both Mike Smithson at PoliticalBetting and James Forsyth at the Spectator are very taken with Jackie Ashley's column in the Guardian on the fate of Brown and whether he will last until the next election.
They were not bothered with the conclusion of her column which I found honest. She is torn between the Brown who is expansive, egalitarian and engaged with ideas and the Brown who is insecure, calculating and the great controller. Between the Brown who insists on the principles of freedom of information and seeks trust through a new settlement, as against the Brown who imposes e-borders, internment and the database state. It was rumoured that Ashley was considered as a candidate to run Brown's press office and, boy, was that a mistake if he didn't offer her the job and the authority to carry it out. She is married to Andrew Marr, the Scot who Brown entrusted with the interview when he announced he was not calling an election (another mistake, he'd have been much better off with giving it to Adam Bolton at Sky who'd have firmly insisted he admit that he must have considered the polls).
Ashley's article is headlined, "Summon the courage to be the man you promised us" and concludes,
Those who always loathed him tell me I'm a fool. Brown has been, they say, an indecisive control freak all his life. The Brown I've admired, the man with big and generous progressive ideas, who is uninterested in the trappings of power and ready to engage in proper arguments, is a chimera. I'm not so sure. Most people are complicated, with good and bad mixed up inside us. What is going on now is a determined attempt to fix "Bad Gordon" in the public mind, in a way that will remain. As I say, it's close to working. But the other Gordon is still there. I have met him. To let him loose again will require courage, calmness and self-confidence. He has courage. Perhaps he needs to work on the other two.
No perhaps about it. But it won't be enough. This is not about personality any more. There have to be some policy changes and a clear 'letting go'. It won't be sufficient any longer to be different from Blair without breaking from Blair, a high-wire act that Brown achieved in his first weeks, especially with his trip to President Bush. This links to Iraq, as I have just argued. And the way we are governed. Ashley is too generous in saying that Brown and Darling can't be blamed for the loss of the two discs and 25 million names. They took the credit for a global economy now they must take the responsibility for a government machine whose helm they have enjoyed these past ten years, knowing its inadequacy. Where, for examples, are the memos from the Ministers demanding the civil service take extra care as peoples' details are digitalised - and the meetings to ensure that such care is built into government? At the very least policy changes on ID cards, on 28 days, on e-borders are needed, in just the way that Brown and Darling turned tail on inheritance tax.
Do you think Brown can last? And what must he do to turn things around in his favour if that is possible?
