And how will it be any different from what Blair has been doing?
Before his ascending to Premiership he said he was going to spend an incredible amount of money on the education of the third world.
We’ve already spent a fortune on this project in the recent past and it has resulted in diddly squat,unless you count the many people who have decided to illegally emigrate to the U.K. after receiving this education.
I am not a convert.
I dunno, but judging by his rather creepy resemblance to the Propaganda guy for the totalitarian gov’t in V for Vendetta, I can only assume he’ll use the fear of the masses to create a distopian dictatorship, until he’s stopped by Guy Fawkes.
Admittedly I don’t follow British politics that closely, so I might be wrong.
The main attack being made by the opposition parties is that Gordon Brown has been an integral part of government for the past 10 years, so nothing will change - vote for us! This is presumably based on an assessment that people are fundamentally unhappy with the way things have been for the past 10 years - I’m not sure that holds up.
There’s not been time to do much, obviously, and the recent massively incompetent terrorist attacks are obviously dominating the news and politics agenda right now but what we’ve seen so far is: appointment of non-Labour ministers (potentially very controversial); much talk of renewing the importance of Parliament; possible cross-party constitutional review. Doubtless there’s more lined up, but right now the only thing to talk about is the two attempted bombings. On that, Brown’s response has seemed to suggest a more nuanced approach - there will be increased security checks at airports etc., but we musn’t let terrorists destroy our British way of life. This is being seen as a shift from Blair’s typical response, which stressed the need for greater police powers and gave no credence to any idea that the liberty/security debate was worth having.
For what it’s worth, Labour have been slumping in the polls for months, but with the accession of Brown, have regained a convincing lead.
Well, I expect that he will lose an election at some stage. Probably not the next one though.
Gordon Brown has suggested he’ll try to limit even further the influence the Unions have on the Labour Party - particularly the funding aspect to it.
I think he will try to avoid Blair’s mistakes:
- don’t blindly follow a US invasion e.g. into Iran
- use the UK Cabinet system, not running the country like a Presidency
- stop giving honours for money
- stop taking freebies like foreign holidays
- don’t appoint Prescott to anything
Sadly there aren’t any obvious politicians with talent here.
And things tend to be event-driven, like the new Home Secretary starting on her first day with a car bomb narrowly prevented in London.
It’ll be much the same, but delivered with a gruffer accent. I cannae wait.
I am quite impressed with a lot of his cabinet choices - and who he fired - and the cross-party nature of the appointments is novel: he’s voluntarily inviting some checks and balances. Also, his foreign policy people are largely anti-Iraq war, albeit some hipocrisy there too. The White House is making grumbling noises about this, for which I’m glad.
However, I don’t really like his buy-in to the massive government interventionism that’s on the rise, so now I wonder who the hell I can vote for next time round.
What’s the difference, exactly? I thought the British PM had at least as much power as the POTUS – including the power to tell subordinate executives what to do. The Cabinet doesn’t vote on anything, does it?
Much of the British system is established custom, rather than written rules. Nevertheless, Blair was notorious for having chats with a couple of subordinates, then announcing that policy to the Cabinet.
Gordon Brown’s got lots of grand plans. The real question is, why, despite Brown being an integral part of government for the past ten years, have these plans only come to light when Brown became PM? He’s not been holding his best ideas back, to the detriment of the country, waiting for his moment to shine, has he? Or, are we to believe his ideas were aired, yet shot down by the tyrannical Blair?
I think it’s the education system in the UK that he should be focussing on.
Is that any different from how previous PM did things?
Is that any different from how previous PMs did things?
Thatcher really broke the Cabinet Govt thing but Blair destroyed it. Before then Cabinet government was much more alive in that decisions were discussed in cabinet and even amended.
According to the Cabinet secretary the only decision ever made by cabinet in 10 years of New Labour was to hand over decision-making on the Millennium Dome to Blair.
Brown has today outlined some “constitutional” changes he’s like to see:
From here.
If he follows through with what Struan has just posted then that looks like a bloody good start to me.
I agree. A definite turn away from the presidential style of Blair. There isn’t a single thing I disagree with.
I do express my hope the public debate is “robust”.
What I don’t see on that list is anything about Iraq.
Will he pull British forces out of Iraq?
That’s not a constitutional matter, to be fair.
It won’t happen overnight, but his cabinet has many anti-war people in it, so there’s a greater likelihood than under poodle Blair. There are rumblings from the MOD about Basra being unrepairable too.