Comment: Brown's mixed messages
Gordon Brown gets personal in conference document foreword
Monday, 08, Sep 2008 12:00
Gordon Brown's premiership, underpinned by the conflict between his long- and short-term impulses, is summed up by his foreword to this year's Labour party conference document.
Today, at least, the prime minister appears to be doing a good job of getting his relaunch underway. An almighty away day to Birmingham for the Cabinet is seeing that much-needed unity after Charles Clarke ruffled too many feathers last week. Even David Miliband is falling into line. And a package for fuel bills due on Wednesday is expected to continue Mr Brown's fightback.
Despite all this there is something slightly troubling about the language of the party conference document foreword, which will be pored over by Labour party activists. Making the headlines today is the penultimate paragraph, in which Mr Brown compares his personal adversity with that currently faced by the country.
"My own response to the great challenges in my own life has been to confront them, resolute in the belief that there would always be something that could be done to overcome them. And there always has been," he writes.
"Now, once more, I am confident that we can come through this difficult economic time and meet these challenges a stronger, more secure, and fairer country than ever before."
There's something very Churchillian about the embattled visionary struggling on through difficult times – Mr Brown is a speechwriter's warning away from mentioning broad sunlit uplands. But there is something slightly troubling about the comparison between personal and national strife. Mr Brown has, of course, had his fair share of difficulties. Nevertheless, his talk of weathering personal storms is hugely resonant of his current political status. The prime minister is engulfed by a battle for his political survival; he should be careful not to give the impression he believes his own career is linked with that of the country's.
British political life will be dominated by the economy, stupid, for years to come. Mr Brown faces a balancing act in dealing with this: he must appear vigorous, dynamic and bright while dealing with darkening economic clouds. His emergence from the slough of despond is somewhat undermined by the enormous list of "challenges" he views as facing 21st century Britain. The prime minister confines himself to a mere ten in the foreword, from the skills shortage and economic shifts to, rather confusingly, erosions in "the boundaries which mark out civilised society".
Having reeled off the list of misery, he states: "I do not underestimate these challenges but I believe that Britain's future is bright. We will bring resolution to the task and determination to build, brick by brick, the foundations for success in this new world."
The key to Mr Brown's future is how he goes about doing this. The Conservatives have sought to portray his behaviour in power as differing hugely from his long-term-minded actions as chancellor. They accuse him of dithering and pandering to the polls for a short-term boost. Has he changed that much? Is he interested in securing the nation's future, or his own?
According to today's foreword, Mr Brown wants to have his cake and eat it too. On the one hand, "immediate support" is required for those struggling to get through the impact of "global instability" on everyday lives. On the other, he talks about investment in skills and "long-term decisions" on transport, energy and climate change. This is all fair enough. Democratically elected politicians can be expected to seek immediate political pay-offs as well as looking after the country's wider interests. But there is a balance to be struck between the two and it is by this judgment that Mr Brown's premiership will ultimately be assessed.
Today's conference document foreword raises questions about the prime minister's view of his own fortunes and those of the country's. It flags up the key issue of whether he can shake off the dithering, voter-pandering labels tagged by the Tories. But it does not, of course, provide the answers: for that we must wait until the Labour conference in Manchester. At least Mr Brown has given us the criteria by which we can assess him.
Alex Stevenson