What’s the point of ousting Gordon Brown?

Posted on September 5, 2008
Filed Under A Progressive Viewpoint | Leave a Comment

Mike Smithson asks the key question regarding the future of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Regarding polling evidence which shows that David Miliband (the most probable challenger to Gordon Brown) would fare no better in a general election than the current leader, Smithson comments:

There’s no point in Labour going through the agony of ousting Gordon and electing a new leader unless that would help their electoral prospects.


I beg to differ. There is more to this than Labour’s chances at the next election, which may still be nearly two years away. The point is will a new leader and prime minister enhance the performance of the government now.

For years before taking the top job the received wisdom has been that Tony Blair was just some kind of vacuous, charismatic front man, and that the real intellectual and moral power behind the throne was the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. The only people who ever really believed this were Gordon Brown himself, his immediate fan club, and the large number of Labour Party members who have always felt that Blair’s New Labour was an insult to the traditions and historic role of the Labour Party.

Now of course, we all know better. We all know what Blairism is. We all know what Brownism is: there is no such thing. Instead there is simply boundless ambition seeking endlessly and fruitlessly to justify itself. It only took the electorate about three months to determine this and the Labour Party was not much slower to recognise the fact. However, the appetite to take action simply is not there. Government is demoralised, divided, clueless as to how to proceed. The obvious truth that the Labour Party has just undermined and seen off the greatest leader it has ever had has now sunk in except on the wilder shores of the Labour left.

The result is government paralysis at a time when we really cannot afford it. What is the point of ousting Gordon Brown? The point is that a new Prime Minister might be able to pull his government together, show some competence, coherence and direction, and inspire a bit more confidence among the people. The next election is almost certainly lost for Labour, but if they won’t give us that election now, they at least owe us the best government they can give us in the meantime.

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