Are you feeling Browned off?
I am – because I’m a lifelong Labour supporter and wanted a Labour Government or, failing that, a Labour/Lib Dem coalition if that was practical. In the event, Gordon Brown has gone as the country’s Prime Minister and as the Party’s leader.
Already I’ve heard some of my Labour friends blaming this on Tony Blair. Their line is that Brown should have become Labour leader in 1994 and then Prime Minister in 1997 instead of Blair. Failing that, they believe that Blair remained as PM for too long and should have passed the crown to Brown not three years ago but more like six or seven years ago.
I don’t buy this attempt to reinvent the Brown narrative. In 1994, Blair was the right choice as Labour leader. There will always be different interpretations of whether there was or was not a deal that Blair would stand down for Brown and, if so, after how long. But Blair stayed as long as he did because he felt that, however good Brown had been as Chancellor, he lacked the skills to be a good PM – and he was right.
In years to come, it is not Brown’s record as PM that will be re-evaluated (his record as Chancellor is already being reviewed); it is Blair’s record. Iraq was a terrible mistake and understandably colours massively any assessment of his record.
But the extent to which Iraq now overshadows the whole of the Blair record will be revisited and Blair’s standing will rise. The man led Labour to three successive General Election victories with massive majorities; he transformed funding and delivery of both health and education; he introduced the Freedom of Information Act and the Human Rights Act; and he gave us the Sure Start programme and the National Minimum Wage.
Of course, he was too close to the City and too trusting of the market – but so was Brown.
We will have plenty of time now to think about how Blair and Brown performed in No 10, because sadly there is unlikely to be another Labour PM for some years. Over the last few days, most observers – including me – assumed that another General Election would be needed in the next year or two if not sooner. However, given the nature of the agreement between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, it could now well be the case that the next election will not be until 7 May 2015.