Brown moves to the fore
Monday, February 13th, 2006It’s something that has not gone un-noticed in the press in Ireland or England, but it is more obvious than ever now that Gordon Brown is moving into Prime Ministerial mode more and more each day.
Over the past few days Brown has been straying from his Economic brief onto wider issues such as Education, Security and New Labour reforms. One interesting development that seems to be innocent on the surface is the fact that Tony Blair will now miss an important ID Card vote due to flight delays in South Africa.
The worry with Gordon Brown has always been that he was more left-wing than Blair and that he would not be as hard hitting with his security legislation. Over the weekend Brown told us all how he supports holding terrorist subjects without charge for more than 30 days and at the same time he showed his unending support for ID cards.
Now; with Tony Blair unable to lead the charge for New Labour who shall take the helm? Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, right? No; Chancellor for the Exchequer Gordon Brown.
Of course the engine troubles are just coincidental; I would be a fool to suggest otherwise. At the same time it is superb timing for Brown. This is a vote Labour are likely to win but on the other hand there is an extremely vocal opposition, including members of the back bench; in other words it’s going to look like a close one even if it isn’t. The issue is something that Brown needs to prove his commitment to as well. So if and when the vote is carried Brown will be the one who led the troops to victory (after a series of embarrassing defeats). This isn’t a result of some great PR by Labour though; who in the right mind would assume the party were capable of such tricks?
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