Gordon Brown’s First Year as Prime Minister
I have known Gordon Brown for 25 years. We were elected to Parliament at the same time in 1983. In opposition we worked together on Labour’s Treasury team led by the late John Smith, and served in John’s shadow administration when he became leader of the Party in 1992. When John tragically died in 1994, I hoped that Gordon would then stand for leadership of the Labour Party. He had a strong following within the Party and in the labour movement more generally, but events turned out otherwise. I thought then that Gordon had the qualities to be a truly great Prime Minister and I still think so now.
Gordon has had a tough first year in the job, from the terrorist attack on Glasgow airport, to foot and mouth, the problems at Northern Rock, and the tax record data which went missing. None of these were problems of his own making, but I think he coped with each one well. In modern politics, however, everything you do right is taken for granted, whereas anything you do wrong is held against you. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than with the abolition of the 10p tax band. The important point here is that the Government did everything it reasonably could to ensure that those who lost out were compensated.
Because of the dramatic increase in world oil prices, rising international market prices for food and the credit crunch following the sub-prime mortgage arrangements in America, we are in for a tough time. The Government knows this. It is Gordon Brown who is taking the lead on the international stage in putting forward proposals to deal with the short term problem of supply and demand in the oil market, and at the same time leading the dramatic medium term case for fundamental change in the way in which we generate energy and view energy costs. It is Gordon Brown who has both the vision and strength of character to get us through these difficulties.
The Conservatives’ assault on Gordon Brown has been unremitting, unbalanced and at times has failed to rise much above the level of personal abuse. The politics of a public school debating society won’t help us. The North East of England has a great deal to gain from investment in the science, technologies and construction projects that go with the Prime Minister’s radical approach to fighting climate change.
This article was originally published in the Newcastle Journal