Danny Finkelstein speculates on Gordon Brown's policy priorities. None of these are hugely eye catching. I have always thought that in his first few weeks he would announce a couple of really eye ctaching policies which would make a clear break with Blair. I used to think he'd announce a pull-out in Iraq. I don't anymore. But I do think he will do one or more of these three things...
1. Announce the ID cards project will be scrapped
2. Announce that there will be no super casinos
3. Make a dramatic gesture towards restoring the power of Parliament
Any other predictions to add to the list?
Dropping the Home Information Pack would go down well - no one seems to support them, apart from those who will prepare and sell them!
ReplyDeleteYep, Dump ID Cards, Home information packs and Council Tax reforms and He will walk it.
ReplyDeletehey, what would be an example of 3?
ReplyDeleteIf Brown wants to restore the power of parliament, then he might start by impementing Lords reform.
ReplyDeleteI expect him to announce hazel blears as his deputy cum whatever.
ReplyDeletePS: why do you have your photo on your blog? Are you vain?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteanon, 10.34. Obviously. It attracts a certain class of punter!
ReplyDeleteAn announcement regarding new rules for the curtailing of commercial activities by the PM's wife might go down a treat. It could be called the AC Act. After Cherie.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things that he could do to show he's different to Blair, but he won't. Brown is a coward, and he's had many a chance to step up to tyhe plate and knock one out of the park, but he simply doesn't have the guts. Prepare yourselves for 3 years of boredom and stagnation...
ReplyDeleteHe could teach you how to type, Iain!
ReplyDeleteOK, OK, you've had a long hard day being interviewed by the Beeb - it's tough being a media star but someone's got to do it.
It's quite sad really, that there are only a handful of things he'd need to do in order to appear a benevolent leader, grateful of the opportunity to throw off the shackles of ten years' forced labour in the shadow of 'Tone'. Of course, if he hadn't agreed with the measures in the first place, he could have fallen on his sword at any time..
ReplyDeleteWhen New Labour took the reins in 1997, after a period of Conservative stagnation, I was quite looking forward to it. Sadly, as they got used to the comforts of power, too many people have abused their power and privilege, leaving themselves looking no better than their predecessors.
I know Gordon Brown sometimes appears to have stepped through time, but a Back to Basics campaign wouldn't go amiss. Let's make the Upper House an elected one, just to ensure that Tone's imminent elevation to the peerage doesn't give him an automatic seat, then scrap ID cards and Home Information packs to cheer up those who aren't already happy enough just to see the back of Tone.
As for Hazel Blears - It's bad enough seeing her regular rants on Question Time. If she becomes Deputy PM, she will undoubtedly take full opportunity of Gordon's general bashfulness and become the voice of the government. She'd never be off-screen....God Forbid..
Pick his nose and wipe the extracted bogie on his tie
ReplyDeleteI was going to say scrap the home information pack but that comes into force before the coronation.
ReplyDeleteAn ID cards review is a must, but maybe even a cull of SPADS could also be in the making. This would make a good attempt at breaking with the era of spin and perhaps help Brown reach out to certain areas of the media.
Much as I would love it for him to drop ID Cards, he is more likely just to defer their implementation.
ReplyDeleteI would have a punt that he might be willing to take more drastic action against the ridiculous amounts of money being pissed up against the wall in the NHS 'Connecting for Health' IT system.
This is going massively over budget and deadlines are slipping, so he should be worrying about the impact it will have on deficits at NHS Trusts forced to use this monopoly provider monolith.
Cancel the raid on lottery and other budgets to fund the Olympics, and instead use the money saved by scrapping ID cards to pay for the Games.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and Brown if anything wants to exapnd the ID card system!
ReplyDeletehttp://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1838366,00.html
He will announce that he is going to beef up regulatory authourities (OFWAT etc) to "help the consumer".
ReplyDeleteIt will be "stealth nationalisation" and back to clause4. After all who cares who owns the former state monopolies (you can tax them) it's who controls them that matters.
here is one of the more likely ones:
ReplyDeleteComplete nationalisation of the railways.
This will be performed by forming a public company that will mop up the train operator contracts as they come up for renewal.
Most certainly a popular one amongst the grass roots, and could also make a visible line between Blair and him.
Sorry Iain
ReplyDeleteBut I have just listened to Browns speech. And let me tell you this man is really starting to put the fear of god up me.
He is running an election campaign without another candidate in site.
No really think about it. He is going to become the most powerfull man in the country without any election or even a proper debate at all, ANYWHERE.
This is not even a show election it is a STALINIST ONE. The sort Saddam and Fidel had and have with all the BBC fun of the fair to go with it.
If I was Cameron I would seriously ask myself whether in 2-3 years time there will be another election at all. Or if there is one. It will not be one that he will be 'permitted' to win.
He "wants to join together the best people to help him run the country"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Think about it and think about it very HARD.
Ask yourself what he means by this statement? The reporters did and he could not or would not give them an answer.
The Lib/Dems did not know anything about it so again ask yourself what does Gordon Brown mean?
He cant mean the Conservatives the BNP or UKIP and the SNP has no mandate at all in Britain, so he must be talking about non-politicians. That is people that have no democratic mandate at all. Which means they can not take democratic responsibility for their actions.
Which to my way of understanding democracy means we will very soon stop being a Democracy in any reconisable western understanding of the word, very soon.
Or please tell me I have had to much to drink. Before I really do.
I think he's going to try to repeat his 'giving independence to the Bank of England' trick, but this time with the NHS.
ReplyDeleteThe BMA has recently said that the Health Service should be run by an independent board of governers. The Conservatives have pulled ahead of Labour on the NHS. Stand by for Gordon to give the BMA what they want and put an independent body of some sort in charge of the NHS.
Dan Byles
PPC North Warwickshire
I dont think he would announce a pullout from Iraq even if he intended to do it. The last thing he would want was an almighty row with Washington before he'd got his legs under the table. More likely he'd withdraw surreptitously by 'completing' the handover. He must see that there is little point in sending fine men over there to be killed and maimed by roadside bombs in furtherance of the neocon liars' and traitors' NWO project since it and them are now detested in the USA.
ReplyDeleteHe'll just be a decent human being, which should 1iss on Blair's chips. Eye-catching initiatives? Leave that to Blair and his political stepson Cameron. Come on, Iain, you're no Cameroonie!Brown and David Davis both like a bit of red meat. I cannot believe the BBC led on autocues. Politicians get flak when they're too slick and flak when they're not. bring on the clash of ideas between Brown and Cameron. Real policy. On current form, Brown will wipe the floor with him.
ReplyDeleteWell he will still be running the treasury as a Macivity type unseen clunking fist and taxing the hell of me!
ReplyDeleteI am sorry but I just can't get excited or interested in this man or his government. I just hope that we can get to the next election without unemployment and interest rates going up further, would like to see our boys and girls being brought home from Iraq and Afghanistan for a well deserved rest!!
"Brown will wipe the floor with him." Yeah right, like he did with Blair? This is the guy who did not have the guts to take on Blair or resign and has done everything to avoid a contest in his own party.
When or what will be the crisis that will "force" Blair to stay as PM in the name of "continuity" ?
ReplyDeleteI'm concerned about Broon's frame of mind. He is so obviously off his rocker. The man is having an orgasm on power which he can neither control or hide. What a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteAmericans on BBC Have Your Say who've not seem him before are asking what is wrong with Broon's mouth...have we noticed 'he has some sort of tic?'
Have we noticed it? We've watched what Campbell termed Broon's psychological flaws with increasing horror for the past 10 years.
He's going to make us an international laughing stock. I bet Bush couldn't believe his eyes when he met him.
No crazy Scots Prime Ministers, please, we're English.
Auntie Flo'
The spin doctors have obviously been burning the midnight oil working on Broon, yet they've merely confused the poor soul. All they achieved is to turn him into Frankenstein's monster.
ReplyDeleteBlair rocks, Cameron rocks...and Broon's off his rocker.
Auntie Flo'
As gordon has been effectivly running domestic policy for 10yrs and was a founder of nulab we can safely assume
ReplyDeletemore of the same.after the 10yrs i think its proven wishy washy socialism lite dont work.They had their chance and blew it.Everything they announce the opposite happens record spending(not investment) on the NHS and its a wreck ditto education and law and order.
He will definitely instruct Yvette Cooper to tell the Commons next week that the disastrous HIP project is to be abandoned.
ReplyDeleteWhoever organised the Bagpiper stuff should help undermine Cameron.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day,hardball between a Scot and Bullingdon Etonian will only have one winner.
And it wont be Dave.
sack vera baird - what an odious woman. her performance on Any Questions was vomit inducing. I thought Alan Duncan was excellent.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we adopt a maximum two terms for PM and end all the misery of "will he or wont he go". The punters are fed up with this Westminster side show.
ReplyDeleteFor starters he should scrap HIPs, ID cards and the NHS IT project - all expensive, grandiose, blinkered, ultimately unworkable attempts by Government to intrude into the personal privacy and freedom of action of citizens.
ReplyDeleteBut he won't, because McCavity is a scaredy cat and too frightened to act decisively. He'll just hide away while the various chaotic fiascos play themselves out. Plus in his heart of hearts he's an unreconstructed old-style socialist and loves the thought of central interference in people's lives. Control freakery? We ain't seen nothing yet.
cancel inheritance tax on primary family home.
ReplyDeleteTell Blair he'll refuse to ratify any deal he makes with Merkel and Sarkozy in June over the EU Constitution unless there is a referendum agreeing to any changes! A good populist move which can be presented as putting "British interests first" and secondly it'll shaft Blair and stop the possibility of him becoming EU President in the near future. He hasn't got the "cojones" to do it though.
ReplyDeleteHe is bound to scrap HIPs.They were going to be Prescott's bequest to the nation.Simply no-one wants them and introducing them at a time of mortgage rate rises is political madness.The last thing Brown will want is a property crash immediately on taking office.
ReplyDeleteIf he scraps ID cards then that will bring to "two" the number of good things he's ever done (with BoE "independence").
ReplyDeleteYet I'll believe it when I see it.
ymHave Blair arrested for |Treason
ReplyDeleteBurn down the Reichstag.
ReplyDeleteBlame the Tories and SNP.
An emergency is declared.
Gordon Brown achieves his goal of becoming a legally established dictator.
Gordon WON'T scrap anything that costs ALOT of money - because he has OK'd all big budgets already.
ReplyDeleteHe WON'T do anything to the tax system, because he can do that at any time.
He WON'T do anything to the constitution, because that will highlight his Scottishness.
Gordon fancies himself as the peoples champion.
You will see lots of "I did this for the public good" initiatives - like giving more power to regulators.
He will bring forward immigration controls on UK borders, because that will happen after the next election.
Try shafting the SNP in his 'constitutional reorganization' ?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chris I don't even think he's go the balls to scrap the ID cards project.
ReplyDeleteEven if he does he'll do it in six months time in a crap way.
I think he said on the "Today" programme this morning that he would not scrap ID cards, but as the tedium of the interview had me nodding off again, I couldn't be sure.
ReplyDeletewritten constitution
ReplyDeletewhatever he does it will cost 10 times the estimate take 5 times as long and will finaly be binned on a bad news day oh and that twat from the mirror will orgasm over it.
ReplyDeleteSadly Anonymous (11:13) is right...he sounded pretty entheusiastic, in his Broon way, about ID cards and spewed forth the usual b/s justifications for them.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't seem to be giving himself any wiggle room to dump this loathsome scheme.
Unfortunatly, despite the cost, there's a symbolism in the ID card that will appeal to Brown's bureaucratic managerialism.
Simplification of the tax system.
ReplyDeleteNah - just kidding!
He has kicked off by saying that the NHS. is a priority. The prick has been a cabinet minister for ten years, how much longer will it take?
ReplyDeleteFlorence Nightingale said, "The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm"
Fat chance in 2007!
Well, from his website one wouldn't have the first clue. BBC News is reporting a big policy speech on health. I go to his website. Nothing. His blog only has one entry, from Oona King, and that is now well over a day old. Nothing from him. This and Labour's lacklustre party website suggest they really are streets behind on this.
ReplyDeleteThe auto-cue 'incident' was deliberate.The door slamming housewife (paid bint) was the real deal.As to what he will do.He'll continue doing what his media advisors tell him to do.Iain-you should add the auto-cue incident to your sleaze book.When contrasted to the door slamming it gives the obvious lie to the death of spin line.Only channel four news ran the full door slamming clip (without comment)so they are covered from the charge of not reporting it.They then concentrated on the auto-cue nonsense.This is a left wing media game.As a trusted organ,people believe the story is where the broadcaster say it is.Whereas in this case it needed 'compare and contrast' for the true story to be told.
ReplyDeleteHe could announce that any contribution to the funds of a political party in excess of £1,000 will automatically bar the donor from political office or quango appointments for the next ten years.
ReplyDeleteBut somehow, I don't think he will.
I wish he would say NO2ID but he won't. It'll be the parliamentary one. More real listening and sorting out the Lords.
ReplyDeleteOn Casinos I feel he will go the other way and have more than one big un. And he'll use the Lords vote on that to hammer them.
PS
ReplyDeleteReading comments about the NHS I really do wonder if commentators here are so young or feeble minded that they cannot remember the state of the NHS after 18 years of Tory rule. The desperate waiting lists, the shortages not over supply of doctors, the rotting old buildings, the strikes and disputes (which admittedly we're seeing again but with so much less to complain about in terms of service.
I think it's a good bet to speculate on more NHS freedom and things like Foundation Hospitals and Stakeholder groups are steps towards that.
Hope it's taken back to a more universal service myself with reduced postcode differences on ket services, prescribing etc. Let the local differences be car park fees, paintings in corridors, priorities among low clinical need areas.
Geriatric, sexual and mental health services need re-strengthening after years of being used a balancing items by Trusts and SHAs.
PS
ReplyDeleteReading comments about the NHS I really do wonder if commentators here are so young or feeble minded that they cannot remember the state of the NHS after 18 years of Tory rule. The desperate waiting lists, the shortages not over supply of doctors, the rotting old buildings, the strikes and disputes (which admittedly we're seeing again but with so much less to complain about in terms of service.
I think it's a good bet to speculate on more NHS freedom and things like Foundation Hospitals and Stakeholder groups are steps towards that.
Hope it's taken back to a more universal service myself with reduced postcode differences on ket services, prescribing etc. Let the local differences be car park fees, paintings in corridors, priorities among low clinical need areas.
Geriatric, sexual and mental health services need re-strengthening after years of being used a balancing items by Trusts and SHAs.
chris paul: "18 years of Tory rule ... strikes and disputes."
ReplyDeleteNo. The strikes and disputes, bodies unburied, hospital porters ruling on emergency admissions, etc., etc., were in the years up to and including the winter of discontent in 1979.
The demon devil woman Thatcher put an end to them. I expect you are too young to remember.
Chris (12 May, 09:56)
ReplyDeleteYep, it will be something like that. I am on record for many months now predicting he will scrap IHT - but raising the limit off the scale, or acting along the lines you suggest, are the more likely ways he will do it: the impact is almost the same.