A post-celebrity Britain?

Today the Guardian treated us to a 2 minute podcast on Gordon Brown informing us that Britain is moving away from its celebrity obsessed culture to more concern for “what lies behind the character or the personality.”  According to Gordon people care about more than just fame and money.

To prove that he doesn’t care about being a celebrity, shortly after the interview, Gordon got himself on a plane to Washington and met up with George Bush.  Everyone knows that meeting up with an unpopular US President is not going to improve your celebrity status.

But such meetings are as much about what Weber called self-legitimation, as convincing anyone at home that he’s going to be the next PM.  Meeting up with the most powerful man in the world does wonders to impress upon yourself how important you are, even if your coronation plans are looking uncertain.

Self-legitimation must also partly be the reason he’s been spending so much time with celebrities, such as Kylie, recently.

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Independent conundrum

The Scottish election polls show there is little appetite for independence in Scotland, only an appetite for Labour blood.  This could be particularly damaging to Gordon Brown, who has put himself at the front of the election campaign.  Yet if the SNP win, which it seems is likely, they will hold a referendum on independence.  Can anyone tell me why the majority of a minority are allowed to decide the future of the minority of the majority of the UK, which will certainly have knock on effects for everyone?

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Coming soon: Gordon’s Vision of the World

There are few clues as to what Gordon’s going to do as PM, mostly because he keeps ideas close to his chest, not even telling his closest advisers until he is ready.  Of course, there has been plenty of speculation: we’ve even had a go ourselves at guessing what policies Gordon’s going to introduce.  But when it comes to foreign policy, no one really has any idea, except that its not going to be like Blair’s.  Well it would seem that Gordon doesn’t even know what his foreign policy is going to be like.

According to Le Monde, the Foreign Office has set up a high level unit to define what Gordon’s vision of the world is going to be.  The only thing Le Monde believes is certain is that Gordon will be more transatlantic than European.

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The cost of campaigning

Last weekend the Tories started asking why Gordon hasn’t declared any expenses for his forthcoming Leader election campaign.

These initial inquiries have been followed up with an article in today’s Times which not only suggests that the Labour party is trying to prevent the Electoral Commission from overseeing the election, but that Brown’s campaign is hidden within the “Treasury or third party organisations like the Smith Institute”.  Like we didn’t know.

As the article points out, Brown could argue that there is no campaign going on or that there is no campagin website, so he doesn’t need to declare anything.  Well, he’s appointed Jack Straw to manage it, so certainly there must be a team for him to manage.  And everyone knows, even at an early stage, running a campaign costs money.

There is certainly some activity on the web too.  As Dizzy has discovered the back end preparations for Gordon’s leadership website are well underway.  All the domains for gordonbrown4leader@ have been registered by silverfish TV, the political campaign company whose clients include the Treasury.

Of course the last thing Brown wants to do is declare his official campaign this early by announcing what’s been spent and who’s been funding it.  But if this pressure continues, he may have to.

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Miliband to stay?

Today there is more coverage of the one thing we can be pretty sure Gordon Brown will introduce when he is eventually crowned king: the abolition of the DTI.  The latest plans include moving energy over to Defra to create a Super Green Ministry.

In itself this move is not interesting nor surprising.  What is interesting is the suggestion that Mili-Me will be running it.  No promotion for Miliband under Gordon then!

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A weekend of sustained attack on Brown

With bad polls, disastrous local election predictions and rumours of Reid planning to stand for the leadership contest (someone certainly won’t get a seat at Brown’s table now), Brown is certainly having a bad weekend.

But to make matters worse someone has dug up some of Brown’s old published work from the 1970s.  The guide apparently informs the reader how to “scrouge off the state, con private firms and use and abuse the system”.  Certainly little has change..now most of us legally rely scrouge off the welfare state.

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Tracking Gordon (no Trade Mark)

Guido’s keeping track of what Gordon’s been upto this week (we all know he’s never where he should be).   So to help him in his task, here’s where Gord’s been in the last few days.

Yesterday he was in Edinburgh with Douglas Alexander launching an exciting Fabian publication on the soon to be defunct Union.  Get your copy for only £6.95.

Today he’s been meeting with Kofi Annan at Gleneagles to discuss what dismal progress they’d made since the last time they were there in 2005.

Tomorrow, Gord’s trying desperately to sure up some support from the Scottish media by addressing a Scottish journalists’ charity lunch.

I can’t wait for Guido’s much promised interactive Gordon journey map.

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The poverty of the poor

The Business has picked up on another of Brown’s failings. Using data from the Department of Work and Pensions, they show that the poorest 10% of the population are worse off now than in 2002. Not a good legacy for a Chancellor or a Labour Government committed to helping the poorest off in our society.

This change conincides with the introduction of the Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit in April 2003, which replaced the Working Family Tax Credit. This enlarged the number of people eliglibe for Tax Credits, but also made it more complicated. As the Business points out it “defeats one in four eligible workers”. The major problem with the type of Tax Credit Brown uses is they are only applicible to the over 25 year olds working more than 16 hours a week. Tax Credits are good at getting people into work, but they offer little or not incentive to work extra hours (more than 16 hours) because the marginal loss of benefits and leisure outweighs the gains. This creates a low wage, or poverty, trap.

Brown has always been keener on means tested benefits compared to Blair who favours a more universalist approach (one of the few clear differences between the two rivals). But the means tested benefit approach is not helping the poorest in our society. Brown must take up this challenge, or soon the polls will be suggesting that the public trust the Tories to deal with poverty more than they do a Labour Government.

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Crisis after crisis for Brown

What a week for Brown over pensions.  But like any story it’s all about the timing.   Let us not forget that the Tories and the MSM have been telling us all these things about Brown since he was made Chancellor in 1997.   What’s different now is these stories can cause more damage.  So prepare for more as we are reminded  of the other mistakes Brown has made.  This pension issue could give someone like Clarke the excuse they need to stand against Gordon, especially after it overshadowed the launch of Labour’s official campaign in Scotland.

Now i’m sure we’ll soon be reminded of how Brown sold off all the gold at rock bottom prices (they even call it the ‘Brown bottom’ in honour of the effect it had) or how last years EU budget will mean we have to give “our money back” to the EU.

 

 

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The fools of April likely to challenge Brown

The Telegraph lists some of the likely challengers to Brown for the leadership of the Labour party. My money’s on John Stuart Mill.

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