History > 2008 > UK > Politics > Prime Minister (II)

 

Gerald Scarfe cartoon

Sunday Times        July 13, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article5282209.ece

British prime minister Gordon Brown

Brown envisages 'global society'

Prime minister hails Barack Obama's
ideals of democracy, liberty, opportunity
and unyielding hope

Monday November 10 2008
17.59 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Deborah Summers, Politics editor
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Monday November 10 2008.
It was last updated
at 17.59 on November 10 2008.

Gordon Brown tonight called for a new age of progressive multilateralism as he hailed Barack Obama's ideals of democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

In what will be interpreted as rejection of George Bush's unilateral actions, the prime minister used a keynote speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet to urge world leaders to join together to create a truly global society.

"While I see a world that is facing financial crisis and still diminished by conflict and injustice, I also see the chance to forge a new multilateralism that is both hard-headed and progressive," Brown said.

"And I believe that in our international co-operation on finance, climate change, terrorism and ending conflict, there is evidence of this new multilateralism at work in the world – fairer, more stable and more prosperous because it is rooted in cooperation and justice.

"And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, together we can seize this moment of profound change to create, for the first time, the age of the truly global society, one where progressive multilateralism, not narrow unilateralism, is the norm."

The prime minister said the alliance between Britain and America, and more broadly between Europe and America, must provide leadership in the effort to build a stronger, secure and more equitable international order.

"Winston Churchill described the joint inheritance of Britain and America as not just a shared history but a shared belief in the great principles of freedom, and the rights of man – of what Barack Obama described in his election night speech as the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope," Brown said.

"And as America stands at its own dawn of hope – so let that hope be fulfilled through a pact with the wider world to lead and shape the 21st century as the first century of a truly global society."

In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech Brown promised continued help for the efforts to bring peace in Darfur, Burma and Zimbabwe and said he would continue to stand up for the democracies of Georgia and Ukraine.

"We will stand by the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo as they face new conflict and turmoil," he added.

The prime minister also pledged to "step up and win" the battle of ideas against terrorism and extremism, and to promote greater tolerance and understanding within and between communities.

On the environment, Brown said tackling climate change was imperative.

"We cannot afford to put climate change into the international pending tray because of the present economic difficulties," he said. "On the contrary, we must use the imperative to act for our future prosperity through the transition to a low carbon economy and reduced oil dependency as a route to creating jobs and economic opportunity for our peoples today."

Brown said he believed the European Union would agree in December its 2020 programme for energy and climate and show "European leadership at its best".

Brown envisages 'global society', G, 10.11.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/10/gordonbrown

Gordon Brown in the Middle East

Brown hopeful of Saudi cash for IMF

Sunday November 02 2008 15.30 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Allegra Stratton in Riyadh
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Sunday November 02 2008.
It was last updated
at 15.30 on November 02 2008.

Gordon Brown said today he was hopeful of success in his attempts to persuade dollar-rich Gulf states to prop up ailing national economies through a massive injection of capital into the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The prime minister spent three hours in one-to-one talks with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, trying to persuade the monarch to invest in a revamped IMF.

On the first leg of a four-day visit to the Middle East, and aiming to secure hundreds of billions of dollars for the fund, Brown called off a planned dinner with business leaders accompanying him so as to allow maximum negotiating time with the Saudi king.

The IMF currently has around $250bn in its emergency reserves but there are fears that, with Hungary, Iceland and Ukraine having already sought assistance and more nations expected to follow, the sum might not be sufficient.

Brown hopes to persuade Gulf leaders to use some of the estimated $1tn they have made from high oil prices in the last few years to boost the reserves, indicating that he would like to see the current sum increased by "hundreds of billions" of dollars.

The prime minister said following the talks that he was hopeful of having secured Saudi backing.

Speaking on the BBC television's Sunday AM programme, Brown said: "I think people want to invest both in helping the world get through this very difficult period of time but I also think people want to work with us so we are less dependent on oil and have more stability in oil prices."

He added: "The Saudis will, I think, contribute, so we can have a bigger fund worldwide."

However, a senior government source party to the negotiations said the Saudis were very sensitive about being regarded as a "cash cow" and that the country, in which two thirds of the population are below the age of 25, would prioritise domestic investment if necessary.

The business secretary, Peter Mandelson, accompanying Brown on the trip, echoed this caution. He played down expectations, indicating that the government was unlikely to learn whether the Saudis would contribute towards the IMF fund until a meeting of 20 countries in Washington on November 15. Mandelson told reporters that talks with the Saudis were a "process not an event".

Both Brown and Mandelson indicated that the Saudis would only buy into the scheme if significant reform of the global institutions was achieved to bring on board rising powers such as Saudi Arabia, India and Brazil.

Business leaders on the trip - described by Brown as the "highest profile group of business leaders ever to accompany a delegation overseas" - said the prime minister was receiving something of a "hero's welcome" for his part in the global response to the recent economic downturn, and that this was softening his dealings with Saudis.

Brown arrived later in the afternoon in Doha, Qatar for the second leg of his tour.

Brown hopeful of Saudi cash for IMF, G, 2.11.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/02/saudiarabia-creditcrunch

Brown Expects Saudi Financial Help

November 2, 2008
Filed at 10:38 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DOHA, Qatar (AP) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Sunday he is confident that Saudi Arabia will contribute to the International Monetary Fund's bailout reserves after he promised business leaders in the Gulf that they would have a say in any future new world economic order.

Brown is using a four-day tour of the Gulf to call on oil-rich Middle Eastern countries to be among the biggest donors to the IMF's coffers to rescue failing nations, which at $250 billion have already been depleted by emergency cash calls from Iceland, Hungary and the Ukraine totaling some $30 billion.

''The Saudis will I think contribute so we can have a bigger fund worldwide,'' he said after a meeting with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah late Saturday and business leaders early Sunday.

The British leader told reporters traveling with him that he wants ''hundreds of billions'' of extra dollars pledged to the IMF fund, noting that the Middle East and Asia, particularly China, have significant foreign exchange reserves.

But analysts have argued that Gulf states will feel little impetus to bolster the IMF fund, given its domination by the United States and the G7 industrialized nations.

A senior British government source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said that during talks the Saudis had been concerned about becoming a ''milk cow'' to prop up ''basket case'' economies in other parts of the world.

Kuwait's finance minister, Mostafa al-Shimali, told Al-Anbaa daily in comments published Sunday that Kuwait was prepared to listen to what Brown had to offer.

''The matter of supporting world markets depends on investment opportunities on offer and their possible returns,'' he said.

Brown has attempted to win favor with Arab states by stressing they have not been represented enough on international bodies and promising them a seat at the table amid discussions by world leaders ''grasping toward new world order.''

''I believe that your country has a crucial role to play and your voice must be heard,'' Brown told business leaders in Saudi Arabia.

After a marathon three-hour one-on-one session with Saudi Arabia's Abdullah at the Riyadh Royal Palace, Brown moved quickly on to Doha, where he is due to meet Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, before attending a dinner with the ruler, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, later Sunday.

Any funds from Gulf states are unlikely to be pledged before a meeting of G-20 nations to hammer out potential reform of the global financial system to prevent a repeat of the current crisis, scheduled for November 15 in Washington D.C., which will also be attended by King Abdullah.

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, who is traveling with Brown and a delegation of more than 20 senior British executives, indicated definite pledges were unlikely in the next few days.

''They are getting each other on to the same page of analysis and the agreed response and Saudi Arabia's active participation in getting the world through this first financial crisis of the global age,'' Mandelson told reporters after Brown met with Abdullah. ''But that is a process, not an event.''

While he is now attempting to woo Gulf leaders to fork out money earned from soaring oil prices, Brown has drawn ire from some oil producing states for criticizing a recent decision by OPEC to cut production by 1.5 billion barrels a day to lift prices. Crude has fallen from a high of $147 in July to under $70 currently.

He repeated his calls for a ''stable'' crude oil price on Sunday, citing the need for ''a sustainable transition to a more low carbon emissions economy for the longer-term.''

Britain has planned an oil summit in London in early December to follow up the talks between oil producers and consumers led by Abdullah in Jeddah in July when the oil price was at a record $147.

The London gathering was initially to be held at heads of state level, but amid controversy over whom had -- or had not -- been invited from the oil producing states, Downing St. said it would be held at ministerial level.

Brown Expects Saudi Financial Help, NYT, 2.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-ML-Gulf-Brown.html

Financial crisis

British government unveils

£37bn banking bail-out plan

• Government to take controlling stake in RBS
• Bank's chief Sir Fred Goodwin stepping down
• Barclays could yet ask for £6.5bn cash

Monday October 13 2008
11.20 BST
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Monday October 13 2008.
It was last updated at 12.36 on October 13 2008.

The government's £37bn bail-out of the banking sector will act as a "rock of stability" that other governments will soon copy, Gordon Brown said today.

The prime minister said the dramatic action would help the UK banking industry to survive the turbulence sweeping the world's financial system, and also pledged to end the era of "rewards for failure" for top executives.

"Today's plan is unprecedented but essential for all of us," Brown said at a Downing Street press conference.

The UK government confirmed this morning that it will pump up to £37bn into Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS in an attempt to prevent the UK's banking sector from melting down.

After a weekend of negotiations which continued through Sunday night, the Treasury announced a wide-ranging rescue plan under which bank bosses face a crackdown on pay and bonuses, and shareholder dividends will be axed.

The government will take a controlling stake of up to 60% in RBS, in return for up to £20bn from the taxpayer. The bank admitted this morning that trading has deteriorated in recent weeks. The chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, known as "Fred the Shred" for his cost-cutting reputation, and chairman Sir Tom McKillop are stepping down.

The chancellor, Alistair Darling, said that Goodwin and McKillop have waived their contractual entitlements to payoffs, as have the chief executive and chairman of HBOS who also announced their resignations today.

Lloyds, which renegotiated its takeover of HBOS over the weekend, will receive up to £17bn once the merger goes through. This will leave the government owning up to 43.5% of the enlarged group, with Lloyds shareholders owning 36.5% and HBOS's investors just 20%.

The government could also yet face a £6.5bn cash call from Barclays.

In return for providing fresh liquidity, the government has secured a series of concessions. RBS and Lloyds have both agreed not to pay a dividend this year - and possibly for several more - and to help people who are struggling to pay their mortgages. They will not pay any cash bonuses this year, and have agreed to let the government appoint several board members.

Darling said it was appropriate for the government to take seats on the boards of both companies, but insisted that they would continue to operate commercially at arms length from the government.

"Ministers aren't going to get involved in the day-to-day running," he said.

The government has also insisted that bank directors will no longer walk away with large payoffs. Gordon Brown told a press conference that the government would no longer tolerate "rewards for failure".

Both RBS and Lloyds said today that directors who are dismissed will receive "a severance package which is reasonable and perceived as fair".

The Financial Services Authority added its weight behind the clampdown on executive pay. It wrote to the heads of the UK banks today, warning that "bad" remuneration policies were not acceptable in the current climate and urging them to review their pay policies.

Darling said today's action was necessary in the "extraordinary circumstances" affecting markets worldwide.

"I'm determined to do everything we can to stabilise our banking system and make it stronger," the chancellor said. "And in return for it, of course, there will be restrictions on what happens in boardroom pay and we're also getting guarantees in relation to increased lending to businesses, as well as to mortgages too."

Key points

The bail-out will mean significant changes for the banks who are turning to the taxpayer for funds.

• RBS (£17bn): Chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin is replaced by Stephen Hester; chairman Sir Tom McKillop will leave next year; the government will own around 60% of the business; no executive bonuses this year; no dividend until the government's £5bn of preference shares are repaid; the government will appoint three directors; RBS will maintain mortgage lending at 2007 levels.

• Lloyds TSB (£5.5bn): Takeover of HBOS renegotiated downwards; the government will own up to 43.5% of the combined group, with Lloyds investors holding 36.5%; it will maintain an HQ in Scotland; directors will be asked to receive this year's bonus in shares; no dividend until preference shares are repaid; government will appoint two directors; Lloyds will maintain mortgage lending at 2007 levels for next three years.

• HBOS (£11bn): The chief executive Andy Hornby and chairman Dennis Stevenson will both leave when Lloyds takeover goes through; shareholders will own 20% of the combined Lloyds-TSB/HBOS.

Shares in HBOS and RBS both fell by almost 30% this morning, while Lloyds TSB slipped by 15%.

Barclays goes it alone

The Treasury has also been expected to take a smaller stake in Barclays. However, it hopes to raise up to £9.5bn in fresh capital through other measures.

Barclays today announced that it hopes to raise £6.5bn through a series of new share issues, underwritten by the government.

The bank said that an "existing shareholder" is interested in taking up around £1bn of shares, but if the rest of the issue is not taken up then the burden is likely to fall on the taxpayer.

In a blow to shareholders, Barclays is axing its annual dividend, saving £2bn. It will also save another £1.5bn through "balance sheet management" and "operational efficiencies".

Fears over jobs

With the UK economy facing a protracted slowdown, the Unite union urged the government to avoid any compulsory job losses as part of the rescue.

"The government has shown strong leadership and decisiveness in a time of great uncertainty. The measures announced today must be bound to undertakings by the banks of no job losses, no repossessions and an end to the bonus culture," said the joint general secretary of Unite, Derek Simpson.

"Thatcher buried Keynesian economics and the current crisis shows just how wrong she was. Government intervention is not only necessary in the financial services but intervention on a wider scale is necessary to protect jobs and the economy in a recession," he added.

    British government unveils £37bn banking bail-out plan, G, 13.10.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/13/marketturmoil-creditcrunch

We must lead the world to financial stability

Strong banks, unfrozen markets, greater transparency
and international supervision are the four keys to recovery

October 10, 2008
From The Times
Gordon Brown

The banking system is fundamental to everything we do. Every family and every business in Britain depends upon it. That is why, when threatened by the global financial turmoil that started in America and has now spread across the world, we in Britain took action to secure our banks and financial system.

The stability and restructuring programme for Britain that we announced this week is the first to address at one and the same time the three essential components of a modern banking system - sufficient liquidity, funding and capital.

So the Bank of England has pledged to double the amount of liquidity it provides to the banks; we have guaranteed new lending between the banks so that we can get the banks lending to each other again; and at least £50 billion will be made available to recapitalise our banks.

We will take stakes in banks in exchange for a return and will guarantee interbank lending on commercial terms. And at the heart of these reforms are clear principles of transparency, integrity, responsibility, good housekeeping and co-operation across borders.

But because this is a global problem, it requires a global solution. Indeed this now moves to a global stage with a range of international meetings starting this week with the G7 and the IMF and, we propose, culminating in a leaders meeting in which we must lay down the principles and the new policies for restructuring our banking and financial system all around the globe.

When I became Prime Minister I did not expect to make the decision, along with Alistair Darling, for the Government to offer to take stakes in our high street banks, just as nobody could have anticipated the action taken in America. But these new times require new ideas. The old solutions of yesterday will not serve us well for the challenges of today and tomorrow.

So we must leave behind outworn dogmas and embrace new solutions.

Of course, the policies each country pursues will need to be suited to its particular circumstances. But based on the British approach, I believe through wider European co-operation and also co-ordination among the leading economies, there are four broad steps we must now all take to restore our international financial system.

First, every bank in every country must meet capital requirements that ensure confidence. Just as in the UK we have made at least £50 billion of new capital available, so other countries where banks have insufficient capital will need to take measures to address this. Only strong and solid banks will be able to serve the global economy.

Secondly, short-term liquidity is simply a means of keeping the system going. What really matters for the future is to open the money markets that have been closed for medium-term funding from the private sector. Until only a few weeks ago few, if any, appreciated the real significance of the money markets within the wider global financial crisis and the importance of trust in these markets. But the freezing of the market for medium-term funding reflects a total loss of trust between banks.

The potential economic consequences cannot be understated. The role of banks is to circulate the savings from deposits, our pensions and from companies to those that need to spend or invest them. The cost at which banks can borrow this money directly affects the costs of mortgages for homeowners and of lending for business. This paralysis of lending from loss of confidence jeopardises the flow of money to every family and every business in the country.

Our guarantee to restart wholesale money markets in exchange for a fee has, I believe, broken new ground in restarting our financial system.

Thirdly, we must have stronger international rules for transparency, disclosure and the highest standards of conduct. Successful market economies need trust, which can only be built through shared values. So as we reform our financial system we should encourage hard work, effort, enterprise and responsible risk-taking - qualities that markets need to ensure, so that the rewards that flow are seen to be fair. But when risk-taking crosses the line between the responsible entrepreneurship, which we want to celebrate, and irresponsible risk-taking, then we have to take action to see that markets work in the public interest to reflect our shared values.

And fourthly, national systems of supervision are simply inadequate to cope with the huge cross-continental flows of capital in this new, ever more interdependent world. I know that the largest financial institutions will welcome the proposed colleges of cross-border supervisors that should be introduced immediately. The Financial Stability Forum and a reformed International Monetary Fund should play their part not just in crisis resolution but also in crisis prevention.

And action for financial stability should be accompanied by the wider international economic co-operation such as that which began on Wednesday with co-ordinated action on interest rates.

I have said all along that we will do whatever it takes to secure the stability of the financial system. And we have not flinched from taking the bold and far-reaching decisions needed to support British families and businesses through these extraordinary times.

We must now act for the long term with co-ordinated national actions.

The resolve and purposefulness of governments and people across the world is being put to the test. But across the old frontiers we must now redouble our efforts internationally. For it is only through the boldest of co-ordinated actions across the globe that we will adequately support families and businesses in this global age.

    We must lead the world to financial stability, Ts, 10.10.2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4916344.ece

Interest rates cut to 4.5%

as Brown unveils £500bn bank bail-out

• Federal Reserve and ECB also cut rates

• London shares fluctuate wildly - close down 5.2%

• Wall Street down 223 points

Wednesday October 08 2008
18:15 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Graeme Wearden
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday October 08 2008.
It was last updated at 18:17 on October 08 2008.

The Bank of England today slashed UK interest rates by half a point to 4.5% in its first emergency rate cut since the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, just hours after the British government announced a momentous £500bn rescue of Britain's banking sector.

The shock move from the Bank of England came at midday as the world's central banks acted together to cut the cost of borrowing in an attempt to avoid financial meltdown, with rate cuts in America, the eurozone, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland.

Gordon Brown told parliament that the global rate cuts were an important signal that the world can act together to address the financial crisis. Just hours earlier, the prime minister had taken the momentous decision to part-nationalise Britain's banks.

The Bank of England said that it was acting because the outlook for economic activity in the United Kingdom has "deteriorated substantially, reflecting a sharp monetary contraction". It had been due to announce its decision on rates tomorrow.

Shares in London fluctuated wildly today, with the FTSE 100 index plunging by as much as 360 points, or 7.8%, in early trading before rallying after the rate cuts. But the moves by the government and the Bank of England appeared not to be enough to restore confidence. The FTSE 100 closed down almost 5.2%, dropping 238.5 points, to 4366.7. Trading was just as dizzying on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 223 points lower at 9223 at 5.30pm.

UK government ministers and bank officials thrashed out the details of the banking rescue plan into the early hours of the morning.

The £500bn rescue scheme comes in three parts:

• £50bn of taxpayers' money will be offered to banks to rebuild their capital reserves
• £200bn of liquidity is being made available as short-term loans in an attempt to thaw the frozen interbank lending markets. This is twice as much as was previouly offered under the Special Liquidity Scheme
• A further £250bn will underwrite lending between banks - another attempt to shore up their balance sheets.

The £50bn part-nationalisation section of the scheme is equivalent to £2,000 for every taxpayer in the UK, and analysts warned today that the public will "foot the bill" for the plan.

The Treasury said that seven banks and one building society will take part - Abbey, Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered.

Barclays and RBS have already said they will participate in the scheme, but HSBC has insisted that it has no plans to do so.

Gordon Brown said that the package was a "bold and far-reaching solution" to the crisis and would help every family and business in the country.

"This is not a time for conventional thinking or outdated dogma but for fresh and innovative intervention that gets to the heart of the problem," he said.

Brown also claimed that taxpayers would be protected and would earn "a proper return".

But Jeremy Batstone-Carr, an analyst at Charles Stanley, said that "ultimately government borrowing will increase and ultimately we, the taxpayer, will foot the bill". He also suggested that £50bn may not be enough to rescue the banking system.
 

An end to fat-cat pay?

The complex scheme announced this morning suggests that the government has insisted on a crackdown on the pay packages of top banking executives in return for rescuing them.

"In reaching agreement on capital investment the government will need to take into account dividend policies and executive compensation practices and will require a full commitment to support lending to small businesses and homebuyers," said the Treasury.

According to Darling, the plan will "unbung" the banking sector.

"It is a process that inevitably will take time. It is not an instant change but it is a restructuring, it is stabilising the system, and that is very important," the chancellor said.

Asked why the government had not come up with the package earlier, he said that the discussion had been going on for several weeks and had been very complex.

He said he was "rather irritated by the speculation started on Sunday," adding: "I wanted to announce it when the time was right, when we had got everything sorted out, we had a scheme that worked and the big banks were signed up to it."
 

Liquidity injection

The government will use £50bn to buy preference shares in the banks, which take precedence over ordinary shares during a liquidation, but do not give the holders any voting rights.

The £200bn of lending announced today comes through the Special Liquidity Scheme, which allows banks to get short-term funding from the Bank of England by swapping long-term bonds for short-term UK Treasury Bills.

Separately, the government will provide guarantees to the banking system of up to £250bn to encourage banks to lend to each other and end the paralysis in the interbank lending markets. The Treasury stressed though that it will charge normal commercial fees for these guarantees.

The plan comes after a succession of tumultuous days on the stockmarket. Yesterday Royal Bank of Scotland shares slumped by 39% and HBOS lost 40%. It was reported this morning that the RBS chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, and the chairman, Sir Tom McKillop, are stepping down, but there was no official announcement from the bank and sources have denied the story.

RBS and Barclays are thought to need £15bn each in fresh capital, with Lloyds TSB requiring £12bn - assuming its takeover of HBOS goes through.

Shares in HBOS surged by 60% today but fell back to close up 24.5% at 117p. Royal Bank of Scotland was trading 22% in early trade but closed pretty much flat at 90.7p.

    Interest rates cut to 4.5% as Brown unveils £500bn bank bail-out, G, 8.10.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/08/marketturmoil.creditcrunch

Government reshuffle

Gordon Brown defends decision

to bring Peter Mandelson back into government

Former Northern Ireland and trade secretary
makes shock return to cabinet in reshuffle

Friday October 03 2008 17:12 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Andrew Sparrow, senior political correspondent
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Friday October 03 2008.
It was last updated at 17:13 on October 03 2008.



Gordon Brown today explained his astonishing decision to bring his bitter rival Peter Mandelson back into the cabinet as business secretary, saying: "Serious people are needed for serious times."

At a press conference in Downing Street, the prime minister said he was appointing Mandelson, who in the past has twice resigned from cabinet posts in controversial circumstances, because he needed "the best team" to help Britain through the global economic crisis.

Speaking before going into Downing Street this afternoon, Mandelson said that he had had his "ups and downs" with Brown but that he now got on "fine" with the prime minister.

"We have also known each other for 20 years and originally we worked very well together. I'm proud to have been invited to serve his government," Mandelson said.

"Our economy, like other other, is facing very hard challenges as a result of the global financial crisis and in a sense it's all hands to the deck. I will be working, along with the rest of the government, as hard as I can to protect our economy and pull us through it."

Unveiling a series of changes to the structure of government, including the creation of a national economic council, Brown said that problems such as the credit crunch and rising food and fuel prices meant he "wanted to reconstruct the way that we govern to meet these challenges".

As well as the return of Mandelson, Brown pointed to the appointment of senior business figures such as Lord Drayson, who is rejoining the government as science minister, and Paul Myners, the outgoing chairman of the Guardian Media Group who has become City minister, as evidence of the fact that he was compiling a heavyweight team.

Some Labour figures welcomed the return of Mandelson, one of the key architects of New Labour. But leftwingers were horrified and the Tories condemned the appointment as a "stunning failure of judgment".

Asked at the news conference why he was appointing Mandelson, Brown said: "Serious people are needed for serious times. He has got unrivalled experience as trade commissioner of the European Commission. Everybody around the world has said that he's done a superb job."

Brown went on: "We are bringing together the best team possible to deal with the difficulties [that we face]."

In Brown's first major reshuffle as prime minister, Mandelson will replace John Hutton, who becomes defence secretary. Des Browne, who had combined defence with the post of Scottish secretary, is stepping down from the government.

Geoff Hoon, the chief whip, is replacing Ruth Kelly as transport secretary. His job goes to Nick Brown, the deputy chief whip and a key ally of the prime minister's.

Hilary Benn stays in the cabinet as environment secretary. But Ed Miliband, one of the prime minister's most trusted allies, is promoted to take charge of a new department for climate change and energy that will take some responsibilities from the environment department and some from the business department.

Liam Byrne takes Miliband's old job at the Cabinet Office. He will attend cabinet meetings, but not as a full member. There is also a promotion for Jim Murphy, who will replace Browne as Scottish secretary.

Murphy's post of Europe minister will be taken by Caroline Flint, who will attend cabinet meetings when Europe is on the agenda, but not as a full member. Margaret Beckett, the former foreign secretary, will rejoin the government as housing minister, replacing Flint. Like Byrne, she will attend cabinet meetings, but not as a full member.

Tony McNulty, the policing minister, has been promoted to employment minister and Drayson, the former defence minister, rejoins the government as science minister. McNulty and Drayson will be cabinet attendees.

Stephen Carter, Brown's chief of staff, and Myners are both joining the government as ministers in the Lords. Carter will be minister for communications, technology and broadcasting and Myners, who is stepping down from his Guardian post, will be City minister.

Jan Royall, the chief whip in the Lords, will join the cabinet as leader of the Lords. She will replace Lady Ashton, who is leaving the government to replace Mandelson as the UK's commissioner in Brussels.

Other cabinet ministers, including Alistair Darling, David Miliband, Ed Balls, James Purnell, Jacqui Smith and John Denham are staying in their current jobs.

Brown will chair the new national economic council, which will have 10 other cabinet ministers and five junior ministers as members. It will meet twice a week, starting on Monday, to "provide a new approach to coordinating economic policies across government".

Downing Street also announced the appointment of 17 "business ambassadors", including Sir Victor Blank, the chairman of Lloyds TSB, and Sir John Bond, the chairman of Vodafone, to support the work of the national economic council.

Brown said: "My sense is that in a few months' time all governments around the world will be taking similar action to the action that we are taking today."

The reshuffle will also see Damian McBride, the prime minister's political spin doctor, moving into a backroom role. McBride, a former Treasury civil servant who became a partisan special adviser, is a key member of the Brown team, but he has also been increasingly criticised by Labour MPs who believe that Downing Street has been engaged in too much negative briefing.

McBride's job as Brown's political press secretary is expected to be taken by Justin Forsyth, a special adviser working on international development issues in Downing Street.

The appointment of Mandelson represents a bold gamble for Brown. Last year the new prime minister was applauded for inviting non-Labour figures into his "government of all the talents" and, given the longstanding nature of his feud with Mandelson, the move could quash claims that he is a factional politician incapable of working with others in the national interest.

Mandelson is also credited, even by many of his enemies, with being an exceptionally able politician who is an expert at presentation – an area where Brown has been weak.

But Mandelson is also a divisive figure who is unpopular within the Labour party and in the country at large. He also has many enemies in the media who resent the heavy-handed tactics he used when he was Labour's chief spin doctor in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, said: "In bringing back Peter Mandelson – the man who created Labour spin – [Brown] has broken his promise to govern in an honest and open way. You can only conclude that his appointment was designed to distract from the changes he should have made.

"By leaving in place a chancellor who has failed and a foreign secretary who has undermined him at every opportunity Gordon Brown has also been exposed as weak.

"With this bizarre reshuffle the prime minister has achieved the impossible and made the government even more dysfunctional."

John McDonnell, the leftwing Labour MP who stood unsuccessfully for the leadership last year, expressed alarm at the appointment. He said: "The whole Labour movement will be utterly perplexed at what the prime minister's motives are.

"This is an extraordinary step backwards into the worst elements of the Blair era, to reinstate possibly the most divisive figure in Labour's recent history."

But David Blunkett, the former home secretary, welcomed the move. "It is a masterstroke in the sense that Peter was an excellent secretary of state for trade and industry but more importantly the connections he has built up as trade commissioner in Europe will be invaluable to the UK," Blunkett told Sky News.

"Of course it is a political stroke as well because it is inclusive and brings back someone who could be described as nothing else but an arch-Blairite."

Although Brown conducted a long-running feud with Mandelson – at one stage they were barely speaking to each other, although they were supposed to be jointly running Labour's election campaign – Brown has been trying to repair their relationship over the last few months.

The pair have had a series of meetings and have often spoken on the phone.

This is Mandelson's second return to government. The former Northern Ireland secretary and trade secretary previously resigned twice from the cabinet.

Mandelson, who is a European commissioner and not currently an MP, is expected to be made a peer to enable him to rejoin the government.

Derek Draper, a former adviser to Mandelson who has recently returned to work for the Labour party, said: "I think Peter will prove to be a pretty formidable secretary of state, a really brilliant contributor to the strategy of the government and the presentation of the government and people will look at Peter and think: 'You know what, we misjudge Peter Mandelson sometimes,' and actually the strengths of Peter and the good side of Peter will come through now.

"As someone who knows him and has had my issues with him, I think he deserves this and I think he will prove to people why he deserves that place at the top table of British politics."

Another former aide, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, wrote on his blog that Mandelson was "one of the few class acts in British politics" and revealed that in recent months Brown has "sought to re-establish his links with Peter through a series of strategy meetings and many phone calls".

But he added: "It was a reflection on the prime minister's perilous position that he sought advice from someone who he pursued a vendetta against for more than a decade following his failure to replace John Smith as leader of the Labour party in 1994. In that time Gordon Brown's acolytes have held no one in greater contempt than Peter. Their reaction to this news, as with most things that they say to the press, is probably unprintable."

The appointment of Mandelson will reassure those in the Labour party who have been worried about the Brown government becoming too factional. Last week Blairites were warning that making Nick Brown chief whip would cause a backlash, but with Mandelson back in government the Blairites will not be in a position to complain about their allies being sidelined.

    Gordon Brown defends decision to bring Peter Mandelson back into government, G, 3.10.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/03/labour.gordonbrown

Gordon Brown:

'We will be rock of stability and fairness'

• PM apologises for 10p tax debacle
• Urges activists to 'stay true to beliefs'

Tuesday September 23 2008 15:50 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Deborah Summers and Patrick Wintour
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Tuesday September 23 2008.
It was last updated
at 16:10 on September 23 2008.


Gordon Brown today attempted to win back the hearts and minds of the British people as he told the Labour party: "I've made mistakes and I'll put my hand up and try to put them right."

In a highly personal speech, introduced on stage by his wife Sarah, the prime minister told the Labour party conference in Manchester that his government would be the "rock of stability and fairness upon which people stand".

In a swipe at David Cameron, shadow chancellor George Osborne and leadership pretender David Miliband the prime minister insisted: "Everyone knows that I'm all in favour of apprenticeships, but let me tell you this is no time for a novice."

Promising a new settlement for new times, Brown insisted his government stood for a fair Britain for a new age.

"Our duty, what gives us moral purpose, is serving the people who need us most, Britain's vast majority, people on middle and modest incomes who need to know that they are not on their own amidst this change – we are on their side."

In the make-or-break speech to party supporters, the prime minister apologised for the 10p tax rate debacle.

"What happened with 10p stung me because it really hurt that suddenly people felt I wasn't on the side of people on middle and modest incomes – because on the side of hard-working families is the only place I've ever wanted to be. And from now on it's the only place I ever will be."

Facing critics of his leadership head on, the prime minister said: "I'm not going to be something I'm not. If people say I'm too serious, there's a lot to be serious about."

And in another thinly veiled swipe at Cameron, Brown said: "Some people have been asking why I haven't served my children up for spreads in the papers. And my answer is simple: my children aren't props they are people."

Brown again insisted that he was the right person to lead the country through the current economic turmoil, amid fresh falls in the financial markets that suggested the crisis is far from over.

The prime minister paid warm tribute to Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader and also hailed his predecessor Tony Blair's hand in reshaping the Labour party.

Sarah Brown's appearance on stage was a surprise move. She thanked the party for its support ahead of a short video showing the government's achievements, which preceded the prime minister's speech.

The film featured a clip of the US Democratic party presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, endorsing the prime minister - a move that could prove controversial.

Remarking on the warm reception his wife received, the prime minister joked: "Thank goodness we are a team."

Urging Labour activists to "stay true to your beliefs", Brown added: "Understand that all the attacks, all the polls, all the headlines, all the criticism, it's all worth it if in doing this job I make life better for one child, one family, on community. Because this job is not about me, it's about you."

Brown today unveiled initiatives aimed at helping those families and pensioners most vulnerable to the economic downturn, although, with the government's own finances stretched, the amount of help on offer is limited and the policies will be implemented over years rather than months.

The initiatives included:

· computers and free broadband access for children lacking internet usage,

· extended help for carers with sick or elderly relatives, and

· a £1bn extension of childcare for children as young as two.

Disillusioned MPs billed the speech as a vital test of whether Brown could communicate Labour's vision to the country.

David Miliband, who is seen as the most likely contender to succeed him, today insisted that he was behind the prime minister.

The BBC reported last night that the foreign secretary was heard telling an aide: "I couldn't have gone any further. It would have been a Heseltine moment," an apparent reference to the idea that Margaret Thatcher's political demise was hastened by brilliant performances by her rival, Michael Heseltine.

But, arriving at today's conference, Miliband dismissed the report as "hearsay".

"I do not accept any of the allegations that are being put around," he told reporters. "This hearsay that the BBC is repeating with absolutely no basis is something that they should know better than."

    Gordon Brown: 'We will be rock of stability and fairness', G, 23.9.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/23/gordonbrown.labour

Brown tries

to boost party morale

with letter to MPs

Gordon Brown urges MPs
to "restate the case for our party and our values"
ahead of this weekend's crucial party conference

Friday September 19 2008
12:23 BST
Hélène Mulholland and agencies
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Friday September 19 2008.
It was last updated
at 12:29 on September 19 2008.

Gordon Brown urged MPs to "restate the case for our party and our values" today in a letter to parliamentary colleagues ahead of this weekend's crucial party conference.

The prime minister sought to concentrate party minds on a political fightback by promoting Labour's core values amid growing calls for a leadership contest from within the party.

In the letter, the prime minister outlined the measures being taken by the party to help people through "this turbulent economic time".

This will be mirrored in the conference slogan, "Winning the fight for Britain's future", which will adorn the backdrop to Brown's keynote speech to the party on Tuesday, a Labour spokesman revealed today.

The premier told MPs to "restate the case for our party and values" and said he was confident "we can come through this difficult time".

Brown said the party needed to demonstrate that the choice at the next election would be between "a Conservative party which still believes in helping the few and not the many and a Labour party which believes in fairness and opportunity for all and has the policies to deliver them".

But he faces an uphill struggle as he seeks to rally the parliamentary party, many of whom are demoralised by Labour's performance over recent months.

An online survey of rank and file Labour activists conducted by Labourhome for the Independent, published today, found 57% believe there should be a vote at the Manchester party conference to decide whether Brown should face a leadership election.

A majority (54%) would prefer someone else to lead the party into the next general election, while 45% of respondents said switching leader would boost their prospects at the next general election. Only 28% thought a change of leader would make things worse.

Brown's personal rating in the poll ranked lower than every member of the cabinet, except chief whip Geoff Hoon and the transport secretary, Ruth Kelly.

Favourites to replace Brown were foreign secretary David Miliband (24.6%), followed by health secretary Alan Johnson (18.1%), backbench MP Jon Cruddas (11.3%) and justice secretary Jack Straw (9.6%).

The deputy leader, Harriet Harman, lagged behind on (6.6%).

The results of the poll, which comprised 788 Labour members and supporters, will be a further blow to Brown, just a day after a separate poll by Ipsos Mori yesterday put Labour on just 24%, a massive 28 points behind the Tories, whose 52% rating was their best score since the heyday of Margaret Thatcher.

Brown took a defiant tone in a pre-broadcast Sky News interview, due to be screened tonight. He said he would not be forced out by rebels and warned the party "this is not the time for faint hearts". He added: "This is the time for people who know how to deal with difficult economic circumstances."

He published a policy document yesterday setting out the priorities for Manchester, including assistance for elderly people who go into care.

The paper acknowledged that the current system - which forces thousands of people to sell their homes to pay for social care - was "unfair and unsustainable" and promised change.

It is thought likely that the reforms will include a drive to help older people stay in their own homes for longer, rather than going into care. But ministers are expected to continue to rule out state funding of the full cost of social care.

Former cabinet minister Alan Milburn warned that the party must embrace "change" to win back the public.

In comments likely to be taken as tacit support for rebels who want to depose Brown, the arch-Blairite said: "One of New Labour's key strengths has been its preparedness to face the future challenge rather than taking comfort in the past achievement.

"The willingness to change is what has made New Labour so dominant in British politics and forced even our most strident opponents into contemplating changes they once thought abhorrent. Now change beckons once again."

Harman last night rounded on colleagues braying for a leadership election, claiming they have made an "error of judgment".

She told BBC One's Question Time an internal contest would be "completely wrong" when people were so concerned about their jobs and finances.

Harman said: "I think if people are worried about their job or worried about their savings, the idea that we say our priority is to have an internal leadership election, I think people would think that was completely wrong.

"So I know what they're saying and I think that they are making an error of judgment. I don't think there is going to be a leadership election, I don't think there should be a leadership election."

She refused to be drawn on whether she would stand in an election, claiming it was a "hypothetical" leadership election she did not believe in.

"I don't want any of my colleagues to have to start engaging in discussion about a hypothetical leadership election which is not going to happen, so I'm not going to start."

Jon Cruddas, who came third in the deputy leadership election last year, today rebuked Blairites seeking to topple Brown.

The MP for Daggenham told the Times that none of those who claim to be Tony Blair's allies come close to matching the former leader. He told the paper: "People will be watching with wide open eyes unable to undestand that... we should become preoccupied with electing another leader. That's what's so wrong."

He admitted that Brown's electoral prospects "don't look good" but warned that a leadership election could leave the party in a worse position by entrenching divisions.

Meanwhile, former deputy prime minister John Prescott issued a call for party unity, saying: "The public is listening to Labour - all it hears it talking about is leadership.

"For God's sake, they are worried about their jobs, they are worried about the future. They want somebody who can handle global problems, and Gordon Brown is that man."

    Brown tries to boost party morale with letter to MPs, G, 19.9.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/19/gordonbrown.labour

9.45am BST

Gordon Brown visits Baghdad

for talks with Iraqi leaders

Guardian.co.uk
Saturday July 19, 2008
Nicholas Watt in Baghdad
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Saturday July 19 2008.
It was last updated
at 10:41 on July 19 2008.

Gordon Brown flew into Baghdad this morning for a series of meetings with Iraq's leaders and David Petraeus, the American general who has led the military "surge" over the past year.

Amid tight security, the prime minister flew by RAF Puma helicopter into Baghdad's "green zone" after an overnight flight to the Iraqi capital via Kuwait.

Brown's visit coincided with a trip by the US Democratic presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, to Afghanistan, where he will meet the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

Obama is later due to travel to Iraq and will meet Brown at Downing Street next week, when the pair are expected to discuss Iraqi troop withdrawal.

Brown, who will update MPs on British troop numbers in a statement on Tuesday, is outlining four "building blocks" of progress in Iraq. Once achieved, these could lead to dramatic reductions - and an eventual withdrawal - of British troops, from the country.

They are:

• Stepping up the training of Iraqi security forces so they can eventually take over the work of the 4,000 British troops stationed at Basra airport on "overwatch" duties

• Political progression to the establishment of provincial elections no later than early next year

• Economic reconstruction to build on the growing strength of the Iraqi economy, which is growing at 7% this year compared to 1% last year. Iraq is now producing 2.5m barrels of oil per day - its highest level since the war in 2003

• Creating the conditions for Iraqis to resume control of Basra airport - the base for British troops in Iraq - so that it can return to full civilian use

Brown began his day in Baghdad by meeting Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's Shia prime minister, and Jalal Talabani, the country's Kurdish president.

Britain's relations with al-Maliki were strained in March when the Iraqi prime minister launched operation Charge of the Knights to drive Shia militia out of Basra. Iraqi leaders and some American commanders criticised Britain for reducing the number of troops in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. Britain has a garrison of 4,000 troops at Basra airport after they withdrew from the city last September.

Brown will aim to put those tensions behind him this morning when he meets Petraeus and al-Maliki. Petraeus made it clear he wanted to move on when he said in May, after an hour's meeting with the prime minister in Downing Street, that Britain had been "invaluable" in providing intelligence, air and logistics support during the Basra operation.

The prime minister and Britain's military commanders believe great progress has been made since March and that lessons have been learnt on all sides. Britain has trained 10,000 Iraqi troops from the 10th and 14th Iraqi divisions.

The American-led surge - and the success against Shia militias in Basra - has also led to a major improvement in security. There have been an average of five rocket attacks on British troops in Basra a month since April, compared with 200 last summer. In 10 of Iraq's 18 provinces, responsibility for security has been passed to the Iraqis. This has happened in all four provinces under British control.

Brown hopes that success in training Iraqi forces will allow him to cut British troop numbers, possibly next year when there is a new president in the White House. Britain had hoped to reduce its troop numbers to 2,500 this spring. But this was postponed after the difficulties of the March offensive.

Petraeus said that Iraqi troops had got off to a "shaky start" during the March Basra operation. He said: "Some were not equal to the task."

The prime minister's visit is timed to allow him to update MPs on Britain's troop commitments before parliament rises for the summer recess on Tuesday. He will tread carefully in what he says after suffering political damage last October when he was accused by the Tories of making politically sensitive comments about troops during a visit to Iraq during the Conservative conference week.

Brown's visit comes on the eve of Obama's first visit to Iraq since he won the Democratic nomination for the White House. Obama's opposition to the Iraq war - and his pledge to withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office - could help Brown reduce the number of British troops.

But Obama has recently begun to "refine" his position on Iraq. The Democratic frontrunner, who will also visit Afghanistan on his trip, said earlier this month that he would conduct a "thorough assessment" of plans to withdraw a combat brigade from Iraq every month.

Brown will meet Obama in London next week when the Democratic candidate ends his tour with a swing through Europe, to Britain, France and Germany. The prime minister is likely to raise one of his main themes for Iraq and the broader Middle East - economic reconstruction.

Britain is taking a close interest in the Basra Investment Promotion Agency and the Basra Development Fund, both designed to stimulate private sector development. Britain is also promoting the renovation of the Umm Quasr port.

Brown had hoped to cut British troops in Iraq to 2,500 by this spring. But the prime minister shelved that - and British troops returned to the centre of Baghdad - when Britain was largely ignored during the anti-Shia militia operation in March.

    Gordon Brown visits Baghdad for talks with Iraqi leaders, G, 19.7.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/19/iraq.military

'I'm like Brontë's Heathcliff':

Gordon Brown reveals his passionate side

Thursday, 10 July 2008
The Independent
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor


The Prime Minister is normally at pains to avoid being compared with other figures but his guard dropped in an interview with New Statesman, published today, in which the interviewer, Gloria De Piero, suggested to Mr Brown that many women viewed him as a Heathcliff-like figure.

Given that the character is famed for his vindictive side, the Prime Minister might have been expected to recoil in horror at such a comparison. But no. "Absolutely correct," he replied, before adding: "Well, maybe an older Heathcliff, a wiser Heathcliff."

Perhaps it is the character's passion that Mr Brown associates with. But, keen to correct any impression that he may be a tortured soul, he added: "I've tried to stop biting my nails. They're pretty good." Then, as he glanced down at his hands, he laughed and added: "OK, they're not."

Mr Brown used the interview as an opportunity to scotch rumours that the number of hours' sleep he is getting is declining in proportion to his opinion-poll ratings. He told the magazine that his sleep patterns varied, but that he got more than the four needed by Margaret Thatcher.

The Prime Minister also dismissed rumours that (like Heathcliff) he has a short fuse. "When you've got difficult decisions to make, you've got to be calm and considered," he said. '"I don't generally lose my temper." He also insisted that he would not be driven out of Downing Street before the next general election. "I'm here to do a job and I'll leave when I finish. I'm not here for the sake of being here."

Speculation is mounting that senior cabinet ministers will tell him this autumn to resign in order to give the party a chance of winning the next election. His survival prospects will fall if the party loses the Glasgow East by-election on 24 July. Describing being Prime Minister as "the best job in the world", he said: "You've got to be sure you're doing the right thing. You can't be deterred by people criticising you... If you believe in something strongly enough, you get on with it."

Mr Brown confirmed his frustration about the "theatre" of the weekly Prime Minister's Questions, as The Independent disclosed earlier this year. "The question is: does it help solve problems and illuminate the big issues...? There are big challenges ahead. You've got climate change, oil prices, terrorism and security and these rarely come up."

He also played down the latest gloomy predictions for the British economy. "I think the first thing people want us to be able to do is to see ourselves through this difficult challenge," he said. But he added that his ambitions extend far beyond that. "I want to build a Britain where every child has the opportunity to realise their potential. If you don't have young people whose talents are recognised and developed to the full, you're not going to have a successful society or a successful economy."

    'I'm like Brontë's Heathcliff': Gordon Brown reveals his passionate side, I, 10.7.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/im-like-bronts-heathcliff-gordon-brown-reveals-his-passionate-side-863913.html

Long hours

and obsession with minutiae.

No 10's private man

Wednesday June 25, 2008
The Guardian
David Hencke
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Wednesday June 25 2008 on p12 of the UK news section.
It was last updated
at 00:02 on June 25 2008.

It was not one of the great issues of state, but Gordon Brown was determined nevertheless.

The prime minister was wrestling over whether the government should impose a deposit on bottles of soft drinks and beer, to encourage people to return them. And if so, should the charge be 5p or 20p? And should this also apply to plastic bags?

Rather than allow junior ministers and teams of civil servants to tackle the nitty-gritty, the prime minister dug into the details of the problem himself, demanding papers from officials.

All this 24 hours before a meeting with EU leaders in Brussels, where the merits of waste packaging rewards was definitely not on the agenda.

Brown's insistence on taking personal charge was no affectation. According to Whitehall sources, there was a protracted exchange of emails in the early hours of the morning between No 10 and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs the day before Brown's trip on March 13.

The PM wanted - and got - a rundown of all the alternatives being considered by the ministry. Civil servants duly complied and sent him all the details, expecting Brown to read the papers on the Eurostar on his way to Belgium the following day.

They were wrongfooted again.

At 6.30am, shortly before Brown was to set off, the prime minister demanded more. He had already read the documents they had sent him, and he had a whole set of new questions and points that needed answering. Immediately. Civil servants had the impression that their advice was being marked out of 10 - and they were lucky to have got five.

"It was like having your homework marked by the headmaster," one remarked to a colleague. The episode explains, in part, why Whitehall has been taken aback by Brown, and why there has been criticism of his style of government.

The Guardian has spoken to eight people who have either known Brown for up to 20 years or have worked closely with him; they describe a man who works fiendishly long hours and is preoccupied by minutiae. There is anxiety that he is too short-term, worrying about the immediate, rather than concentrating on the strategic. The early morning and late night messages are often brusque though they are certainly keeping people on their toes.

Presentational disaster

His image in Whitehall is undoubtedly being fashioned by the shock many civil servants experience when Brown emails them directly for the first time, expects an instant response and draws them into a vortex of activity that runs into the night and the next day.

There have been other incidents over the past year that have made Brown - who was supposed to have a sureness of touch - look clumsy. The "will he, won't he go for a general election" last year made him look indecisive, and was compounded by a trip to Baghdad during the Conservative party conference that drew criticism for appearing to play politics with British troops. The visit was regarded privately by some cabinet members as a presentational disaster.

There have been others, including his awkward body language when the Olympic torch arrived in Downing Street following protests prompted by China's clampdown in Tibet. Would the prime minister touch the torch outside Downing Street? He didn't. The situation was made worse by the Chinese security officials, who were prominent throughout the photoshoot, blocking TV coverage of Brown as he stood beside the flame.

But the image of Brown as an angry man who spends his time thumping his fist on the table is unfair, according to many. The caricature is just that, and does not take into account the fact that he is a private man with a very different way of doing things to his predecessor.

There is one matter on which everyone agrees: Brown is "totally driven" and has what one minister described as the "stamina of an ox".

His obsession with detail has led him to turn down formal dinners in favour of spending the night in front of a computer. One minister said: "If he had his way he would just turn up and give his speech. Time spent at a dinner for him is a waste of time; he'd rather be poring over the details of policy or looking at public spending in Wales."

He also gives people short shrift if he thinks they are not up to the job. One former adviser said: "Blair might well be content with a detailed summary, while Brown would want to know the whole policy behind it, but both would pursue the issue equally vigorously."

Brown does have rows with colleagues, but they are often provoked for a reason. He likes what one aide called "intellectual jousting".

"Brown hates yes-men and likes a good argument over the best way to pursue policy. When he was chancellor there would be big arguments between the two Eds [Balls and Miliband]. There are often a million different ways of doing things and he likes to go through the lot before deciding which is best."

Ministers have found meetings challenging because they are forced to justify what they are doing. "He is more like Thatcher than Major; he will challenge you to defend your position and if you can convince him he will agree with your decision," the aide added.

This way of doing business stems from his time as chancellor. Nick Brown, when he was agriculture secretary, was once questioned in detail during one spending round on why his department still funded research into bee diseases and growing varieties of strawberries, to see if the chancellor could trim £500,000 off his budget. Brown took the information from the ministry's website and got into a discussion about the science of growing strawberry varieties.

His treatment of Downing Street staff has been the subject of some speculation, including diary items describing how he is supposed to have reduced to tears one of the "Garden Girls" - the secretaries at No 10 - by shouting at her.

Friends say they don't believe Brown would have behaved in that way. One pointed out that if he talked like that to Sue Nye, one of his closest aides, she would have walked out. She's still there.

Is there any time when Gordon is not being obsessively driven by work? According to those close to him. It is when he is watching a Premier League game or Euro 2008.

"Football is his achilles heel; he's totally obsessed. He'd be a great guy to have on your sports pub quiz team; he once met a Leeds United supporter and was able to go through the entire team in 1956." Another former special adviser said he used to look up the TV schedules of the main Premier League games, knowing that he could have a couple hours of peace without being disturbed by a Gordon phone call or email.

The PM's latest obsession is the internet. His friends say his latest light read is Charles Leadbeater's new book We-Think and the power of the internet to create, network and inform democracy. Some of his friends, however, think the PM might benefit from sometimes turning his computer off.

    Long hours and obsession with minutiae. No 10's private man, G, 25.6.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/25/gordonbrown.labour

Analysis

Irish EU referendum:

what it means for Gordon Brown

Calls for British PM to hold referendum on treaty in UK resume
as Miliband prepares government's response

Friday June 13 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Andrew Sparrow, senior political correspondent
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Friday June 13 2008.
It was last updated at 14:38 on June 13 2008.

Gordon Brown will press ahead with ratification of the EU treaty even if, as now seems inevitable, the Irish announce later this afternoon that the treaty has been rejected in a referendum.

Pushing the European Union (amendment) bill through parliament has been politically damaging. But the bill has now cleared almost all its key stages in the Commons and the Lords and Downing Street seems to think that it would be pointless to drop it now.

Brown is also keen to honour the promise he has given to other EU leaders to ratify the treaty by the end of this year. The bill will have its third reading in the House of Lords on June 18, it will receive royal assent shortly afterwards, and the UK's formal ratification of the treaty will take place later in the summer.

The process has been damaging for Brown because Labour gave a commitment in its 2005 election manifesto to hold a referendum on what was then the proposed EU constitution. But he would not call a referendum on the EU treaty, even though in many respects its provisions are very similar.

The result in Ireland will encourage Eurosceptics to renew their demands for the treaty to be scrapped, or for British voters to be offered the chance to have their say in a referendum if the treaty is not entirely abandoned.

Even before the result of the Irish vote was formally announced, John McDonnell, a Labour Eurosceptic, said: "The British government must now give the British people a say on the EU treaty. Brown must immediately announce a British referendum."

The Foreign Office said it would not comment on the result until it was official. But if, as expected, the result is no, David Miliband, the foreign secretary, will deliver Britain's initial response in a statement to the media later this afternoon.

Following a no vote, the European Union could either ask the Irish to think again, change the treaty in the hope of making it more acceptable, or decide to abandon it altogether.

Miliband is not expected to offer a clear proposal. The government takes the view that a no vote would predominantly be a problem for the Irish, and the Irish government should take the initiative in proposing a way forward.

But the Irish cannot decide how to proceed in isolation and Miliband will be dragged into a discussion about the way forward at a long-planned meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.

On Thursday and Friday next week Brown will be in Brussels for an EU summit where what to do about the treaty will also be at the top of the agenda.

According to government sources, Miliband and Brown will argue against substantial rewriting of the treaty. "The last thing we want to do is have another prolonged period of introspective navel-gazing," said a source.

Other EU leaders could propose tinkering with the treaty in a minor way in the hope of making it acceptable to the Irish. But anything that would involve parliament having to pass another bill would be unacceptable to Brown.

    Irish EU referendum: what it means for Gordon Brown, 13.6.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/13/eu.labour

10am BST

Brown pays tribute

to 100 British troops killed in Afghanistan

Monday June 9 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Richard Norton-Taylor,
David Batty and agencies

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, today paid tribute to the 100 British troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001, after a suicide attack claimed another three soldiers' lives.

The three soldiers, from 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, were on a routine foot patrol near their base in the Upper Sangin valley, in Helmand province, when they were struck by an explosion.

Four were injured and evacuated to Camp Bastion for treatment, the Ministry of Defence said. One was pronounced dead on arrival and, despite medics' efforts, another two died from their wounds. Their next of kin have been informed.

Brown said: "My first thoughts and condolences are with the families of these soldiers, who died serving in Afghanistan with such distinction. I want to pay tribute to the courage of all the 100 British troops who have given their lives in Afghanistan in the service of their country.

"The risks they bear and the sacrifices they make should be in our thoughts, not just today but every day. They have paid the ultimate price, but they have achieved something of lasting value - helping turn a lawless region sheltering terrorists into an emerging democracy."

He continued: "I do not believe democracy in Afghanistan would have survived without Nato and UN support - and British forces have been on the frontline of that international effort, and have acquitted themselves with great bravery and professionalism."

The chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said: "One hundred brave and professional servicemen have now died in Afghanistan ... I only hope that the terrible hardship that they have been asked to bear can be eased by the certainty that our forces are engaged in a most noble endeavour.

"In parts of Afghanistan which were once lawless, there is now governance and rule of law. Across the country, more than seven million children are now in school and increasing numbers of people have access to healthcare."

Des Browne, the defence secretary, said: "I would like to express my deepest sympathy for the family, comrades and friends of the three soldiers killed. Every visitor to our forces in Afghanistan comes back with the same sense of awe and admiration for the courage, professionalism and dedication of the remarkable young men and women serving out there."

He said British troops were making "significant progress" in the fight against the Taliban. "Militarily they have put the Taliban on to the back foot and they have created security and freedom that the people of that area have never known before," Browne told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The Conservative party leader, David Cameron, said: "My heart goes out to their families at this time. We owe so much to young servicemen and women who risk their lives to fight on our behalf."

The shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, said: "Every lost serviceman is a tragedy to their friends and families and our hearts go out to them all. We should be grateful as a country for the courage and fortitude of those willing to defend the security and values of an often ungrateful nation."

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said: "While the pain of the families and friends of the 100 brave servicemen and women who have lost their lives must be unbearable, I have no doubt that the cause for which they died is a just one. The consequences of failure would be unimaginable - a boost to terrorists who seek to harm our way of life, an increase in hard drugs on our streets and terrible instability in an already unstable region."

By the time the British military death toll in Iraq reached 100, in January 2006, there had been five UK fatalities in Afghanistan.

    Brown pays tribute to 100 British troops killed in Afghanistan, G, 9.6.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/09/military.afghanistan3

1.45pm BST update

Brown remains defiant on 42 days

Monday June 2 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Alan Travis, Patrick Wintour and Jenny Percival
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Monday June 02 2008.
It was last updated at 13:45 on June 02 2008.

Gordon Brown today made a defiant stand in defence of his plan to detain terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge, insisting he had balanced the need to protect civil liberties against the interests of national security.

Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, the prime minister said it was "inevitable" given the increasing complexity and sophistication of terror plots that the police would need more time beyond the existing 28-day limit.

He insisted that the government was putting in place safeguards including the need for MPs to approve a home secretary's decision to detain suspects for up to 42 days and giving an independent reviewer the power to examine every single case.

"I have tried to build consensus around our proposals but I am determined that we stick to our principles and that is that up to 42-days detention is and will be necessary in the future, but parliament will make the final decision on the individual incident itself," he said.

Brown added: "The protections that we are putting into place for civil liberties are commensurate with what we are saying is rightly necessary in the interests of national security."

Brown's stand was reminiscent of Tony Blair's before he suffered his first Commons defeat in trying to extend the detention-without-charge period to 90 days in 2005.

But, when pressed as to whether next week's vote would be treated as a vote of confidence in the government, Brown declined to confirm that it would. Instead he said the matter would be put to the Commons "in the normal way".

"We believe these are the right proposals for the country," Brown told reporters.

The prime minister said the security services were currently investigating 2,000 terrorist suspects involved in around 200 networks and 30 potential plots. In the most recent case to come before the courts, he said police had to examine 400 separate computers, 8,000 discs and 25,000 exhibits.

Ministers believe they can win next week's vote on the proposals but David Winnick, who led the successful rebellion against plans to extend the terror detention limit to 90 days in 2005, told guardian.co.uk that he had not been persuaded by the government's safeguards and did not believe his colleagues would be either.

"The crux of the matter, and this is why I'm not satisfied and remain opposed, is a simple one: is it necessary to go beyond 28 days? The concessions which have been made, have been made because the government is desperate to get the measure through, but they do not answer this basic point.

"Where is the evidence that it is necessary for the protection of our country to have a detention period longer than 28 days? No single case has been put forward to say that if we had a longer detention period there would have been charges."

Winnick, a member of the Commons home affairs select committee, said he believed around 35 Labour MPs were opposed to the counter-terrorism bill – enough to defeat the government .

He said a few rebels may be persuaded to back the government because they were concerned that a defeat would further damage Labour's standing in the polls but he insisted that the government had still not made the case for a change in the law.

Labour MP Mark Fisher said that if Brown lost the vote on the detention of terror suspects it would be down to his intellectual obstinacy.

"I think that it is quite possible, indeed likely, he will lose. The prime minister has a very fine mind and when he has made up his mind that he is right on an issue his mind is hard to change," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Brown's intervention came after the Guardian revealed that Europe's human rights commissioner is to write to the prime minister this week warning him that the proposal to detain terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge is an "excessive" measure that will put Britain "way out of line" with the rest of Europe and will prove counter-productive.

Later today the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, will outline to Labour MPs "concessions" designed to curb the scale of a backbench revolt a week on Wednesday, when the key vote is to be held.

Brown rang some potential rebels at the weekend. But his hopes of crafting a consensus will be undermined by the Council of Europe, and by the parliamentary joint select committee on human rights, which is expected to reject the compromise being touted by ministers.

They have been privately suggesting that the detention powers would be triggered only in defined "grave exceptional circumstances", such as multiple plots by terrorists.

Parliament would get to vote on the decision to use the detention powers within seven to 10 days of the decision to do so, and it would also require renewal by parliament every 30 days.

But the joint select committee is expected to agree tonight that it would be better for the government simply to derogate temporarily from relevant articles of the European convention on human rights if the country was under that level of attack.

In an attempt to lower the temperature, Brown will not attend tonight's meeting of the parliamentary Labour party, even though it is the first since the Crewe and Nantwich byelection defeat.

The government's claim that criminal suspects in Italy can be held for months without charge has also been dismissed by Italian parliamentary authorities. They have confirmed to Commons librarians that the maximum period of pre-charge detention under Italian law is four days.

Ministers have repeatedly cited the Italian "example" in an attempt to rubbish research by Liberty, the human rights organisation, showing that Britain's existing 28-day limit is already longer than any comparable democracy.

In his letter to Brown, Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner will say: "I am concerned by the British government's suggestion to allow terrorism suspects to be detained for 42 days without charge.

"This would be way out of line with equivalent detention limits elsewhere in Europe. We need to be more restrictive with such measures. Keeping people detained for such long periods before prosecution is excessive and will prove counter-productive," he says. "I would urge members of the parliament to carefully review the government's proposal."

He is mandated to foster human rights standards across the 47 members of the Council of Europe and could have a role in any case at the European court of human rights testing the legality of 42-day detention.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "When the Council of Europe human rights commissioner has cause to intervene in Britain, we should all be truly ashamed. The commissioner has endorsed Liberty's view that 28 days is already way out of line with the rest of Europe."

She claimed the government had been quick to try to smear Liberty's evidence but had produced none of its own: "In recent weeks they've even started whispering that Liberty will support some desperate 42-day rescue package. They've lost both the argument and the humility to admit it."

Home Office minister Tony McNulty said the Council of Europe was "entirely wrong" to draw comparisons between Britain's judicial system and those of some continental countries which do not have the same concept of a "charge".

    Brown remains defiant on 42 days, G, 2.6.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/02/terrorism.humanrights

We've been given a yellow card

- Labour

Brown takes blame for poll debacle and tells voters:
I share your pain

Monday May 5 2008
The Guardian
Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Monday May 05 2008 on p1 of the Top stories section.
It was last updated
at 02:58 on May 05 2008.


Gordon Brown is planning to help hard-pressed families in the wake of Labour's drubbing in the elections with a package including the expansion of shared equity schemes to boost the housing market, the shelving of plans for council rubbish taxes, and putting more pressure on supermarkets to contain food price rises.

But the prime minister has ruled out rushing through a compensation package for the abolition of the 10p tax rate ahead of the Crewe and Nantwich byelection on May 22, fearing that it would turn the vote into a referendum on the issue.

He is also to consider shelving the proposed rise in fuel duty in October, but has no plans to reverse the unpopular increases in vehicle excise duty on some polluting cars announced in the March budget.

The disclosure of the essential elements of Brown's fightback plan came as he took personal responsibility for the local elections debacleby admitting that his obsession with policy detail may have obscured the communication of big messages.

He also tried to assure voters that he was fully aware of their feelings over rising food and fuel prices. "I do understand this and I feel the hurt they feel," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

He went on to insist that he was not remote from the concerns of ordinary people. "You know I come from a pretty ordinary background ... we as a family felt under pressure when the economy was going through difficult times.

"I understand what people are thinking and I understand what people are feeling. And I believe that I'm the right person to lead people through this."

The deputy leader, Harriet Harman, said the party had to make its language more understandable. She said: "We have to have more of a focus on family finances as well as on the overall economic strategy of keeping the economy stable."

Some of his closest allies in the cabinet are urging Brown to take greater risks and show greater definition by taking on enemies.

Despite despair at the party's performance, and Brown's plunging popularity, there was no sign of a challenge to the leadership from inside the cabinet.

The foreign secretary, David Miliband, said Brown was "the right man to take us forward into the next general election", but said the electorate were seeking a greater sense of order in society, and greater power. Even the Labour leftwinger John McDonnell issued a statement insisting he was not going to act as a stalking horse candidate.

But Gisela Stuart, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, said: "While Gordon Brown himself has probably a far clearer vision as to where he wants to take the country than Tony Blair had, I think Tony Blair was better in the telling of the story ... Gordon has got the story, but he has lost the knack of telling it."

Brown is also on probation with parts of his cabinet over the way in which he is communicating his message.

One cabinet member said: "We have been given an almighty yellow card with bright red lights flashing at the edges. It is entirely up to Gordon to decide whether it will turn fully red. He has until the end of the year to do it and he must show within the next three months that he is heading in the right direction.

"That will determine whether these results turn out to be our 1991, the moment John Major recovered, or our 1995, the moment Tony Blair became undefeatable. At the moment everything is up for grabs. It could easily go either way.

"The problem with these young cabinet ministers is that they don't have teenage children who can tell them they're sounding or looking prats. They're at the stage with their children of just telling them to go to bed when they're awkward. You can't do that with the electorate".

Brown insisted he was not going to be shifted only 10 months into the job saying: "I am resolute and determined, and I've got convictions and ideas, and I'm not going to be put off by a few days' headlines from the job that I'm determined to do for this country.

He also touched on the possible reasons for the election debacle. "Perhaps I've spent too little time thinking about how we can get our arguments across to the public," he told the Andrew Marr Show. "And now of course I think people are saying, look can you show us that you can come through these difficult situations. And I believe we will."

Downing Street hopes the plan to reinvigorate the housing market by expanding shared equity ownership schemes - so far limited to a small number of key workers - will increase the take-up by making buying easier for first-timers. The government has already announced two new Open Market HomeBuy products allowing those who sign up to buy as little as 50%of the property, with a low interest loan on the remainder. However, critics say the government has spent £350m on a scheme that has helped just 700 families.

No 10 also signalled that it would reject an extension of rubbish or bin taxes when five pilots, not due to be completed in 2012, are completed. "Punitive rises in council taxes is not what we need" said one source.

The third element of the plan - action on rising food prices - will comprise backing efforts from the competition commission to pressure supermarkets to restrain price rises at a time of high profits.

    We've been given a yellow card - Labour, G, 5.5.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/05/localgovernment.gordonbrown

Labour

Brown pledges stronger focus

on day-to-day cash problems of families

The Guardian
Monday May 5 2008
Patrick Wintour, political editor
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Monday May 05 2008 on p6 of the UK news section.
It was last updated at 00:08 on May 05 2008.

"Focus, communicate, and deliver" was the injunction yesterday to Gordon Brown from former ministers and a growing band of serving ministers, after yesterday's performances by the prime minister on BBC1 and Sky in the wake of the dire local elections results.

In his interviews, Brown promised to help voters through their pain over the rising cost of living, and to set out new ideas on housing, health, education and the constitution. On economics, Labour's language is intended to move away from the abstractions of macroeconomics, in favour of everyday family finances.

One older cabinet minister said at the weekend: "It's fine for Gordon to say these are tough times and that he is the man who will lead us through them. But he has got to show that he really gets people's concerns and anger. We have also got to see less of the likes of Yvette Cooper and all those young people round him, Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and Douglas Alexander.

"Yvette's horrendous interview on Channel 4 on Friday night was brilliant in exposing the central problem. She trotted out the script: that 10p had been bad and that these were tough times. But she really had nothing credible to say when asked what her message was to the electorate."

Brown yesterday repeatedly said that he understood voters' everyday concerns. He also insisted he was not remote from the concerns of ordinary people.

"You know I come from a pretty ordinary background ... we as a family felt under pressure when the economy was going through difficult times.

"I understand what people are thinking and I understand what people are feeling. And I believe that I'm the right person to lead people through this."

But he offered few specifics on whether he will freeze fuel duty or bin proposed rubbish taxes, or how he will compensate those who lost on tax.

The row over the abolition of the 10p tax band is the most urgent and symbolic. In the words of one ministerial aide yesterday, "in the past voters have given us the benefit of the doubt because we seem to be fair; 10p undermined all that."

Even though Labour knows the Tories will exploit the 10p issue in the Crewe and Nantwich byelection later this month, Whitehall has no immediate answer. Brown has said it is hard to identify the low-paid who need help, remarks that hardly meet yesterday's call from Frank Field, the leading rebel, to offer a clearly explained compensation package now.

Field said chancellor Alistair Darling's explanations of how the tax change would be "offset" by enhanced payments under the winter fuel allowance, tax credits and minimum wage had been "clear as mud ... I, along with a number of MPs, believe that if ministers fail to make crystal clear how the package is taking shape, we should retable our Commons amendment on the 10p tax rate, and so block the budget," he said.

Brown also knows he faces a big task in addressing issues such as escalating fuel and food prices. Some of his closest cabinet allies are arguing that he has to do much more than provide the best intellectual analysis of the problem.

    Brown pledges stronger focus on day-to-day cash problems of families, G, 5.5.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/05/taxandspending.tax

Gordon Brown

The clunking fightback

Monday May 5 2008
The Guardian
Leader
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Monday May 05 2008 on p26 of the Leaders & reply section.
It was last updated at 00:10 on May 05 2008.

"In this job you have to get on with the detail," said Gordon Brown yesterday in a protracted and rather painful interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr. The remark showed how unrealistic it is to expect the prime minister to change. Detail has been his downfall. Downing Street staff promote talk of a fightback after last week's elections, but they must know that any alteration to the prime minister's approach to power will prove skin-deep. He is who he is - and no promise to listen and learn, or to lift his eyes from the minutiae, can ever alter that.

This makes much of the advice now being thrust on him worthless. Friends can suggest any number of ways he might hope to rescue himself - smile more, smile less, reshuffle the cabinet, drop 42 days, scrap ID cards, raise taxes or cut them - and many of these ideas are good. Mr Brown, though, is not a man to listen. He showed a veneer of understanding yesterday, over 10 pence tax, the cost of food and house prices. But he did not quite dispel the perception that underneath he thinks the government is right and the public wrong. If that is the basis on which he fights the next general election then it is as good as lost.

If the local elections had not been so terrible, Mr Brown might have shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the things that are going quietly well: Europe did not become the issue the Conservatives hoped; the standing ovation nurses gave to the health secretary last week is a reminder that the NHS is recovering; big reforms are being made to education. But the scale of Labour's defeat demands a bigger response. Mr Brown is in denial if he thinks Labour lost last week because the media have been unkind or because voters are suffering economic pain. Yesterday he returned obsessively to the ground on which he made his name as chancellor. But his attempt to seek excuses in the downturn left him in the strange position, for a prime minister, of claiming that the country's economic problems are more serious than they actually are.

Among the many things Mr Brown needs to do is revise his opinion of the Conservative party that beat him. It must hurt to see men like Boris Johnson and David Cameron do well. But it will do him no good to tell voters - as he did yesterday - that they had been gulled by showmen. The opposition's critique of the government is more substantial than that. Labour needs to respond. Mr Brown needs to decide now what he thinks of the Tories: are they shallow and empty, or hard men of the right - because they cannot be both. He must define his enemy if he is to overcome it.

Somewhere inside the knot of worry and confusion that tangles Mr Brown's mind there is a strong idea of the sort of country he wants to create. Labour's recovery, if it comes and if Mr Brown survives as leader, neither of which is certain, must be built from this. He means it when he talks of opportunity and fairness and a Britain prepared for the future. But such dreams do not in themselves win elections, and are less distinctive than he believes anyway. He needs to define his intentions in specific ways, not through a daily hailstorm of small ideas but by picking fights and winning them on a handful of big ones. His best hope lies in pledging and rapidly delivering one or two particular and tangible improvements to public services. The long term is important, but the short term matters too. This is the time for the government to ask itself, as the Fabian Society puts it, "if not now, when?" - and then act.

A prime minister who believes that the electorate has been lured into a sort of false consciousness will find himself railing against the mood of the country. That is the route to defeat. Once, Mr Brown blamed Tony Blair for frustrating his intentions. He now seems tempted to blame the Conservative party and the public instead. But if he wastes the next two years he will only be able to blame himself.

    The clunking fightback, G, 5.5.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/05/localgovernment.gordonbrown

Will the real Gordon Brown

please stand up?

And then don’t sit down

for a while

May 5, 2008
The Times
Ann Treneman, Parliamentary Sketch

Gordon Brown wants us to know that he has the “E-factor”. That is “e” for empathy and not “eek”, by the way. He feels your pain. He’s there by your side in the supermarket and at the petrol station.

“I understand what people are thinking and I understand what people are feeling,” he insisted yesterday.

But does he really? Because it may not be very nice. Indeed, what I was thinking as I watched him on the Andrew Marr Show, all scrunched up and dressed for church, was that he didn’t seem so much a man who could feel our pain as a man who was in pain.

“People say you look very, very tired,” chirped Andrew.

Oh, Gordon. Look in the mirror. The eye bags are so heavy that, on an airline, you’d be fined for excess luggage. Do you look tired? No, you look exhausted. You have had the worst election since elections began. You have earned the right to look like a shipwreck. Just admit it.

“People say that you are a bit strange!” twittered Marr, as if he himself were entirely normal. Gordon looked puzzled. I must admit that I felt a pang of sympathy.

Andrew now defined what he had meant: “You are a workaholic old-style politician who doesn’t empathise in the sofa television way that people expect.”

And guess what? The workaholic old-style politician who cannot empathise on sofa television now proved that he could not empathise on sofa television.

He didn’t smile, make a joke or even note that, actually, this didn’t seem to be so much a television sofa as a psychiatrist’s couch. Instead he began, in his dogged and earnest way, to explain why he wasn’t strange.

“I come from a pretty ordinary background,” said the man who has spent the past 11 years living in Downing Street in one way or another. He told us that he had friends. “We are talking about things,” he noted proudly. “We are talking about sports!” He chuckled at the memory.

“We are talking about everything that is going on.”

It was impossible to watch this and not think: “My, but he’s strange.” It almost seemed cruel and I had to remind myself that he had put himself on that sofa (actually a chair but it’s all soft furnishings really).

It’s all part of his “fightback” and, we must assume, some sort of masterplan.

Actually, we could have done with more of a plan. He refused to tell us any details of how he’s saving our economy. Indeed, his only actual plan seemed to be that he wants to get out more and meet us. He wants to listen. He wants to empathise. He also wants to apologise. The man for whom sorry has been the hardest word now, suddenly, can’t stop talking about his mistakes, about the 10p tax cut, the general election that wasn’t, blah blah blah.

It’s all a bit much: if he knocks on your door, you might want to hide.

So, said Andrew Marr, who really should think about psychiatry as an alternative career, was there a new Gordon Brown to discover?

“I believe that the real Gordon Brown,” said the real Gordon Brown with another awkward chuckle, “is someone who is standing up at all times for hard-working families.”

OK, Real Gordon, here’s the deal. You stand up for hard-working families all you want but, please, don’t sit down again for a while on the television sofa. Show a little empathy: it’s just too painful for us to watch.

    Will the real Gordon Brown please stand up? And then don’t sit down for a while, Ts, 5.5.2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3872846.ece

The Sketch:

Gordon may be listening

– but he's not really hearing

Monday, 5 May 2008
The Independent
Simon Carr


Poor Gordon. He's got to be contrite but purposeful, chastened but confident, unbending but flexible, learning but leading. It needs a suite of skills that he's a bit too old to pick up quickly.

If "listening" really is the rhetorical strategy, he isn't the natural choice to front it. On yesterday's Andrew Marr Show, relaunching another fightback, he turned the knob on his hearing aid the wrong way. It was like talking to a deaf grandfather from a bygone era. Far from listening, he was busy getting his key messages out.

But, as Andrew Marr said: "If people had been listening to those messages, you wouldn't have got 24 per cent in the election."

"People want to know we have an unequivocal sense of direction," he replied, a little arbitrarily to some ears.

After Gordon rehearsed his passion for education, fairness and "unlocking the talent" of everyone in the country, Marr pointed out the PM had been saying that for some time but now "the country is deserting you".

The listening answer starts with the words, "the polls were indeed dire for the Government". The deaf grandfather answer begins, "I don't accept that".

Then: "What do you make of Boris Johnson?"

"That's a test for the Conservative Party as a whole." It's not part of a conversation, is it?

Another exchange: "Should you step aside?"

"No, because there's a job to do. Take housing –"

"But with respect, because there's a job to do doesn't mean you're the man to do it."

"We're going to build three million houses ..."

"Show, don't tell" is one rule of communication. If Gordon wants us to believe he is listening, the best thing to have done was listen. In one respect, his Sunday morning performance may have been suicidally deaf.

The abolition of the 10p band was on the front of The Sunday Times and the subject of Frank Field's article in the Daily Mail. It's still a live issue, after weeks of government listening and learning.

The PM's response? "Frank Field is satisfied with the letter written to the Treasury Select Committee."

"He doesn't sound satisfied," Marr said doubtfully.

"No, no," the PM strode on, "I think he is." And there we are. Frank Field's Daily Mail article had made three objections to the PM's handling of the situation and the first was that the letter to the Treasury Select Committee was "as clear as mud".

Will there be comprehensive reimbursement? "We think we can help the low-paid," the PM said. Think? Think? That's very far from what Field believes he was promised.

If Gordon sticks to this line, he'll lose his Finance Bill and be gone within the year. It's not the listening, in the end, it's the hearing.

The Sketch: Gordon may be listening – but he's not really hearing, I, 5.5.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/simon-carr/the-sketch-gordon-may-be-listening-ndash-but-hes-not-really-hearing-821115.html