The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

COMMENT: Brown and out

Gordon Brown’s premiership ended with a whimper. As the negotiations between the political parties – in the wake of the general election – reached a conclusion, it became clear that the Labour party would not continue in office. Brown offered up his own head, in a bid to appease the Liberal Democrats. But to no avail. David Cameron formed a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition, ending thirteen years of Labour rule.

BY MATTHEW OKOT

Brown was there from day one in 1997, spending a decade as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was consumed by jealousy of his younger colleague, Tony Blair, who got to 10 Downing Street first. Their fractious relationship hampered Labour’s ability to govern effectively. When Brown finally got Blair’s job, it was a poisoned chalice. It was possible to feel sympathy for Brown but he authored his own misfortune.

It is true that Blair got out in time, yet if Brown got the top job too late, this was his own fault for not deposing Blair when his rival became a liability after the Iraq war. Brown dithered constantly, to the exasperation of his own supporters. He was willing to wound Blair but afraid to strike. It was this dithering that undid his premiership. Brown made a deceptively good start and he stoked up election fever in the autumn of 2007. Yet a sudden Tory poll surge scared him. He scrapped the election after seeing the opinion polls. Brown denied that the polls had influenced his decision – nobody believed him. He had ‘bottled it’. His authority collapsed. Labour MPs became rebellious. The government started its drift to defeat. Brown had snookered himself.

Opponents who felt that he lacked the character to lead were vindicated. As the global recession started to bite, Brown felt his hour had come. The economy was his speciality. Brown led a commendable rescue of the banking system but the recession threw an unfavourable light on his Chancellorship. Despite boasting repetitiously about his own economic skills, Brown had left Britain inadequately prepared to cope with a recession. The economic castle had been built on the sands of debt and borrowing.

Late in the day, Brown re-discovered state intervention; an admission that his policies as Chancellor were wrong. The self-styled economic genius leaves a grisly economic legacy for the next government. Often Brown talked about his ‘moral compass’ but he presided over the 10p tax debacle, which hurt the lowest paid, whilst the fiasco over accommodation for the Ghurkhas revealed a leader out of touch.

The war in Afghanistan was the centrepiece of the war on terror, yet New Labour skimped on defence spending. For a man who lived and breathed politics, Brown was extremely bad at it. Many of Brown’s defenders pointed out that the media were focussing on his dour image rather than his policies. Yet many of his policies were simply wrong. There is no doubt that Brown possesses intelligence and conviction but he simply lacked the courage of his convictions. Gordon Brown was up to the job of prime minister, if only he had never had it.

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