He’s timed his new baby to perfection, giving Blair the perfect metaphor with which to step down from the Labour party (no pun intended)…
I’ll elaborate, since no-one has responded yet…
Gordon Brown is the present Chancellor of the UK and is expected to assume unopposed control of the government party from Tony Blair at some point in the next 2 years. He is widely considered to be an outstanding Chancellor and despite his neo-liberal PFI and PPP policies I’d agree on the whole with that assessment. Blair is starting to look like the millenium Prime Minister, a man who came to the fore at a time when a lot of people anticipated change from the dreary end years of the last Conservative government, a man who was hanging on for the sake of pride rather than principle. The Iraq war is neither here nor there, Blair was always going to come under pressure after winning a third term, particularly when his own party elected him as leader on the proviso that he step aside for Brown at an opportune moment. Now Labour happen to have the highest postwar 3rd term parliamentary majority (I haven’t actually checked this stat, I heard it being bandied around during the coverage of the last general election) but nonetheless Brown is pushing for the number one spot, or the Number Ten spot.
The baby has simply forced the issue in the way that a war in the middle east never could. Nothing warms the heart of the wavering upper working/lower middle classes as much as a fertile politician. Brown is now responsible for 3 offspring (assuming that the present pregnancy is successful), one of which tragically died. So he’s fertile but has had his heart broken, an electable combination. David Cameron needs a baby, any baby, if wants Number Ten…
Ha, ha…Baby Politics…now that is fitting for the U.K. political system…
I personally think Brown will be a decent leader…maybe I line toward him for purely nationalistic reasons…but alas, no! I like him on a purely superficial level which may well turn out to be a BIG MISTAKE.
Brown has more balls than Blair. At least so the image is projected. He is not as conservative as Tony. He may well bring some political muscle that Blair lacked. He might cut out some of the bullshit and hit us with some hard facts.
I’m sure like most politicians he will end up with egg on his face. perhaps an entire english breakfast.
‘And you may ask yourself,
how did I get here?’
- TalkingHeads, ‘As the days go by’
Seriously, having 2 young children and another that is dead is probably the ideal position for a PM candidate. He has the sympathy of the public because everyone (pretty much) can appreciate to some extent the torture of seeing your child die but also has a vested interest (or so it appears) in the future of the country - he won’t want his kids to grow up in a horrible country (or so the people will think).
As I say, Cameron needs a kid…
Seriously, I know you made a valid point, and I get the feeling, the general ‘spirit of culture’ would lean in Browns favour anyway for the position…but the baby is a good way to win the soft heart of the Nation…Father bereaved of his child then new Father…admirable qualities…perhaps…
What do you make of Brown for P.M.? What might he do in office?
He’ll reap the rewards of the investments made by the last 9 years of Labour government which should see him through the first 2 elections. His politics are something of a mystery (always good in a new PM, don’t make any firm policy statements and then you don’t have anything to live up to) but I imagine that he’ll put some new spin on the neoliberal politics (Public Private Partnership and all) and probably do very well at it.
I’m listening to a discussion on the radio about chewing gum, the whys and wherefores, the problems and pitfalls, the burning questions ‘why has no-one invented non-stick chewing gum?’ (answer: because then it wouldn’t be chewing gum you dumb bitch)… An article about the mother of the 12 week old baby that was raped (referred to in my opening post on the pedophilia thread) being horrified to learn that the principle culprit may only serve 6 years in prison gets about 40 seconds of discussion. ‘Why has no-one invented non-stick chewing gum?’ gets about 20 minutes.
Let me request that anyone reading this post reflect on that once again. This sort of bias is precisely why I try to listen to the news for hours at a time, one gets and impression not only of what is considered newsworthy but also of the rankings at play…
If Gordon Brown can somehow sort this out then I’ll be very happy. I don’t think that he’ll manage it, it would take some sort of revolution in media culture.
What, you would vote for a person based on fertility. ???
What???
What if he and his wife a nuts.
You have a point regarding having his children raised ins a horrible country, but what if he ups the social programs and reinstitutes goverment control of the utilities??
I will have to communicate with my cuzs regarding him. Don’t worry, cuz is a confirmed atheist, or perhaps this should cause you worry.
Super smart chap my cuzs…I mean Ph.D’s and all that.
I wouldn’t vote for someone on the basis of their being fertile, it’s more an issue of how the British public tend to think…
I’ve never voted for Labour (I’ve only been old enough to vote in 2 general elections) because they’ve no chance in my constituency so I’ve always voted Liberal (yes, I vote Liberal despite my political views) to try to oust the Tory.
and the water breaks…
-Imp
Yeah, this whole discussion is getting a bit empunned (not a word) for my liking…
Blair seems to have had it all: youth, prudence, looks and trustworthiness. If not for Iraq, immigration policy and London bombing, he probably will go down history as the most popular PM beside Churchhill. Too many now, Tony is doing nothing except hanging on the last grip of his former glory and grace. Brown should have taken over last year just to spare Blair’s tacit agony. Labour lied. Ask Dyke. Kenedy lied, too. Will Cameron continue to keep up the dishonest tendency in recent British politics, is what every true democrat keeps their eyes on. Cameron’s got this fantastic chance in a couple of years when he takes on a few more grey hair, grows a beard, and of course, delivers a baby. Brown’s economy is at best decent, no way in hell it should be praised as excellent. The chancellor is old, looks tired and worn out, he probably wouldn’t stand much chance against Cameron in the long run. For the Lib-dems, the future’s bright, the future’s oringe. Whatever happens, if Brown fails, labour might retreat into a 100 year recession for god knows, becasue Clarke looks like a baby and Straw looks like a rat.
Are you kidding? Economically we’re outperforming our comparable European counterparts, from what I understood of the pre-budget report. That to me is the foremost test.
The Lib Dems? They’ve got a long way to go to overcome the ‘yoghurt-weaving hippies’ tag…
However they did oust their leader for having used to have been an alcoholic so maybe they have woken up and realised that British politics really shouldn’t be that hard a game to win. I always liked Charlie Kennedy and had no problem with him being a drunk. Many of them are, there’s a pub where MPs of all parties can be found at midday, swaying and dancing to the jukebox. That’s democracy…
All the time but, never.
The foremost test to me, (besides hooking up with the Economist and studies Brown’s every move historically with an emphasis on Kenysian macro and Ricardian micro economics in seminars), is assessing the financial affairs of the average economic public agent, most of the time, of myself. You can once again take my word for it that the consumption curve for my domestic economy for the past five years has been declining with acceleration of Cob-Douglas utile grandient in excess of 0.7 by face value adjusted for cumulated annual inflation.
With all due respect to Charlie the Drunk, Lib-dem’s “yoghurt-weaving hippies tag” might have had something to do with his voice and Welsh accent… My father, you know the kind of old man who can tell a person by his facial features, once commented uncannily when seeing Kenedy on the tele, a phrase prounanced “ruozhi” in Mandarin, meaning in the effect of “the brain-weakened one” in English. Today I retain my respect for my old man.
I take your word for it.
You do make me laugh, Uniqor.
You do know that Kennedy isn’t Welsh, don’t you?
No, I don’t. How come he speaks with a Welshlike accent? Waite a second, I know: he’s been a sheepherd for too long, that also explains his liberal sheeps being constantly exposed to critical preditors left ungaurded, while Charlie goes behind the hedge to take a sip and a… ok, not funny this time I admitte.
That’s because he comes from that particularly rugged part of North Wales called Scotland 
I’m suprised that the link you gave me has a Chinese version for it, but it’s rather short, says something alone the line of “Head of Lib-dem party. recently admitted has got ‘alchochol abusing’ problem. Resgined.”
Delboy, Scotland has its accent very distinguishably diferent from the Welsh tone. The same goes for Irland. If you ask a Chinese student in England to distinguish between an Irish and a Welchman, he’d do it with ease, but he wouldn’t know it if two German tourists talk in German, he’d mistake them as locals. However, let’s not lead the thread astray and humiliate Charlie any further, if someoneisatthedoor gets pissed he’ll probably ban our ass all together…
I’m sorry, but I find it hard to get scared by the imminent arrival of SIATD. Whenever I see his name it reminds of Rod Hull and Emu’s show, where the kids are shouting “there’s somebody at the door!â€
But to keep the peace:
Gordon Brown to take over before the end of the year
Interesting.
I don’t have the power to ban people, nor would I choose to do so except in extreme circumstances…