History > 2007 > UK > Politics > Prime Minister > Gordon Brown (VI)

Grim Brown warns

of a bleak year for Britain

· Prepare for turbulence to come, says PM
· Credit crunch 'our biggest challenge'

Sunday December 30, 2007
The Observer
Nicholas Watt, political editor

Gordon Brown today issues a bleak assessment of the world economy as he braces Britain for a year of belt tightening in the wake of the credit crunch.

In a strong warning, which sets the backdrop for a campaign to revive his premiership, Brown tells Britain to prepare for 'global financial turbulence' in 2008. 'Our strong economy is the foundation,' Brown writes in his new year message. 'With unbending determination in 2008, we will steer a course of stability through global financial turbulence. The global credit problem that started in America is now the most immediate challenge for every economy.'

Brown's sober analysis comes in the wake of the autumn credit crunch that caused the first run on a British bank in more than a century after the Bank of England bailed out Northern Rock. The sight of thousands of depositors queuing outside branches across Britain to withdraw their savings was one of the factors that contributed to the dramatic fall in Brown's ratings in the autumn.

The Prime Minister knows he must turn round his and his government's fortunes in 2008 if he is to beat off a strong challenge from Conservative leader David Cameron and place Labour in a strong position to secure a fourth successive election victory. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, today warns that Tory messages are 'resonating' with voters.

But Brown receives a boost today as a new opinion poll shows that a 13-point Tory lead has shrunk to five points in just two weeks. In a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times, Labour is up three points on 35 per cent, the Tories are down five points on 40 per cent and the Lib Dems gain a point to 15 per cent. Downing Street, which believes that coping with the expected economic slowdown will be a decisive factor in the new year, will be encouraged by these results.

The Prime Minister tackles the financial threat head-on in his message as he pledges to repeat his success as Chancellor, when he helped to stave off recession in the face of a series of global economic crises. 'Just as we withstood the Asia crisis, the American recession, the end of the IT bubble and the trebling of oil prices and continued to grow, Britain will meet and master this new challenge by our determination to maintain stability and low inflation,' he writes.

'We will make the right decisions, not only this year but for the years ahead, to safeguard and strengthen our economy - and, by keeping inflation low, keep interest rates for business and homeowners low.'

Brown's decision to highlight the threat to the economy shows he still believes his track record places him in a strong position to cope with financial instability, despite recent polls that show the Tories closing the gap when judged on economic competence. But Brown also wants to brace people for a bumpy year. He says that '2008 will be the decisive year of this decade to put in place the long-term changes that will prepare us for the decades ahead'.

Brown indicates that ministers will soon embrace a new generation of nuclear power stations. The government believes that renewing Britain's civil nuclear power programme is the most effective way of guaranteeing security of supply while tackling climate change. 'Because a good environment is good economics, we will take the difficult decisions on energy security - on nuclear power and renewables - so British invention and innovation can claim new markets for new technologies and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.'

Aides described the message as strongly New Labour. He makes clear that Labour traditionalists will receive no comfort as he presses ahead with the reform of public services to better tailor them to the individual. 'Illness is not a nine-to-five condition - and the NHS cannot be just a nine-to-five service,' he writes. This will be welcomed by supporters of Tony Blair who signal today that they are suing for peace with Brown as they declare that their hero is 'history' as a political figure in Britain.

In an article in today's Observer, the former cabinet minister Stephen Byers writes: 'Tony Blair is history. With Tony Blair gone from domestic politics, the task of leading Labour to victory falls to Gordon Brown. It is the responsibility of all of us who want to see a fourth election victory to give him our support.'

David Cameron also issues his new year message, pledging to set out a 'clear and inspiring vision' of what a Conservative government would look like. Highlighting health, education, crime and social breakdown as the key issues, he writes: 'This will be the year in which we show that there is hope for the future, that there is a clear and credible alternative to this hopeless and incompetent Labour government.'

Grim Brown warns of a bleak year for Britain, O, 30.12.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2233303,00.html

Brown endures

a Commons savaging

over sleaze row


November 28, 2007
From Times Online
Jenny Booth, David Byers and Philip Webster

Gordon Brown endured a savaging in the Commons today about the Labour donations scandal, as his chief fundraiser was forced to admit that he had known for two months that a millionaire property developer had illegally donated £600,000 to the party through middlemen.

Facing calls to resign, Jon Mendelsohn issued a statement saying he had been "unhappy" when he found out about the arrangement with David Abrahams, when he was appointed to his role as Labour's director of election resources in September.

He said that he had checked with Peter Watt, the party's general secretary, and was told the procedure was above board and part of a "long-standing" arrangement. Mr Watt resigned over the scandal on Monday.

Mr Mendelsohn is the latest figure to become embroiled in the affair, which has seen revelations that Mr Abrahams used at least four friends to transfer more than £600,000 to Labour while his own identity remained secret, breaking funding rules.

The latest disaster for Labour, after Northern Rock and the data loss debacle, prompted David Cameron to ask at a rough-house Prime Minister's Questions whether Mr Brown was up to the job of leading the country.

One donation made by an intermediary was accepted by Harriet Harman, who said she did not know that the donor, Janet Kidd, was a proxy to Mr Abrahams. However, Mr Brown and Hilary Benn both refused offers of cash through Ms Kidd. Baroness Jay, a member of Mr Benn's campaign team, asked Mr Abrahams to donate in his own name, as using a proxy was probably not legal - suggesting that the deceit was known about in some Labour circles.

Mr Mendelsohn today issued a statement in which he tried to clarify his position, claiming that he asked Peter Watt, the general secretary, about the donations but had been reassured about them.

"I was informed by Peter Watt to whom I reported that this was an arrangement with David Abrahams which was long-standing and which was appropriately dealt with in relation to the Party’s reporting requirements," the statement said. "He told me these donations fully complied with the law, and I had no reason to doubt that information.

"However I was unhappy with the arrangement whereby donations were taken through a third party, and was determined it would not play a part in our future plans. I was very concerned that these arrangements did not meet the strict transparency test that I wished to see in place.

"I did not discuss this with the officers of the National Executive Committee or party leadership but I decided to tell Mr Abrahams that his method of contribution was unacceptable. I had no intention of asking Mr Abrahams for donations and wanted to give him the courtesy of explaining this personally."

Mr Abrahams said this morning that he had received no correspondence from Mr Mendelsohn until yesterday, after the scandal broke, when he finally received a handwritten letter through the post from Mr Mendelsohn, inviting him to a meeting in London to discuss his donations.

Even then, he said it appeared to be couched as soliciting further gifts rather than asking him to change the way he gave. He says he was at no point told that what he was doing was illegal.

"The letter is soliciting funding from me, and I don't need a letter from anybody in the Labour party to solicit donations because I'm a regular donor and they can rely on me when they need me," said Mr Abrahams.

He read out parts of the letter, which said: "The party is of course very appreciative of all the help and support you have given over many years. At some point I would like to have the opportunity to talk to you personally about our plans.

"As one of the party’s strongest supporters it is only right that you are kept informed with what we are doing and the priorities that we are assigning to our resources. Any time that you are next in London I would very much like to meet to discuss this."

During another mauling at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Brown backed Mr Mendelsohn's version of events as he came under attack by Mr Cameron, the Conservative leader.

"On September 3 he started employment in the Labour Party. He has had absolutely no involvement in the donations that have been made," Mr Brown said. "These donations have been happening for a period of four years before he took office."

The Opposition leader retorted: "Are you telling us that Mr Mendelsohn knew and did not tell either you or the police. Is that an acceptable situation?"

Mr Brown told him: "Mr Mendelsohn says in his statement that he was led to understand by the general secretary of the party that this had been cleared with the EC (executive committee).

"He also says he was unhappy in principle with these arrangements and he had approached one of the people involved and was seeking a meeting to sort these things out.

"But, of course, if anything untoward has happened in this respect, that will be a matter for the inquiry and we will take whatever action is necessary to sort this out."

Amid mounting uproar, Mr Cameron concluded his attack by saying: "We have had 155 days of this government, we’ve had disaster after disaster. His excuses go from incompetence to complacency and there are questions about his integrity."

To Tory cheers, he said: "Aren’t people rightly asking now: ’Is this man simply not cut out for the job?’"

The scandal over the donations has threatened to engulf Labour's upper ranks, after it emerged that several Cabinet ministers appeared to have accepted funding from Mr Abrahams or his proxies for their deputy leadership campaigns.

Ms Harman has come under growing pressure after it emerged that her campaign team had accepted a cheque for £5,000 from Janet Kidd, the secretary who has channelled £147,000 towards Labour on Mr Abrahams' behalf.

Ms Harman said of Mrs Kidd: "I do not know whether my campaign team contacted her or she was contacted by campaign team." But Labour and Tory politicians were asking why Ms Harman, who is married to the party’s treasurer, Jack Dromey, did not raise questions about the source of the money – in particular as her rival Mr Benn was told by his supporters.

Baroness Jay of Paddington, on Mr Benn's campaign team, noticed that the money was not originating with Ms Kidd and called Mr Abrahams to ask him to donate the money under his own name.

The fact that Baroness Jay knew of the funding deception raises the question of how many other senior party figures were aware of the arrangement, which Labour claimed on Monday had only been known to Mr Watt.

Mr Abrahams said that his conversation with Baroness Jay had given him an inkling that there might be a problem with his secret donations, but that he had simply assumed that the rules on donating to leadership campaigns must be different.

Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary and former Transport Secretary, has also been dragged into the row after it emerged that ministers intervened with the Highways Agency to ensure that planning permission was granted to Mr Abrahams' associates for a business park in Co Durham.

A spokesman for Mr Alexander denied that he had ever met Mr Abrahams or knew anything of the matter.

Brown endures a Commons savaging over sleaze row, Ts Online, 28.11.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2959161.ece

2.15pm GMT update

Brown sets out 'new world' vision

Monday November 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Haroon Siddique

Gordon Brown was accused today of compromising his recently stated commitment to the environment, after he backed a third runway at Heathrow and indicated his support for a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference in north London, the prime minister said the country was faced with "the most far-reaching change in our occupational, industrial and employment structures for more than a century".

Brown described the construction of a new runway at Heathrow as a "clear business imperative", and said: "Our prosperity depends on it."

While he avoided prejudging the results of a consultation on new nuclear power stations, he said such projects "potentially have a role to play in tackling climate change and improving energy security".

The prime minister also said "key national infrastructure projects" would benefit from a streamlined planning process that could potentially help expedite airport expansion and the construction of a new fleet of nuclear power stations.

Brown was praised by environmental campaigners last week after he insisted the government was committed to renewable energy and hinted at tougher targets for CO2 emissions.

But today both the Liberal Democrats and Greenpeace accused the prime minister of undoing all his good work.

"Last week, Gordon Brown spoke about the need to take action on the environment, but today he talked of airport expansion and a new generation of nuclear power stations," said Vince Cable, the acting Lib Dem leader and Treasury spokesman.

"This is an incoherent view from a prime minister lacking a vision for Britain's future."

John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace, said Brown's speech left him "wondering if the prime minister is capable of listening to the public".

"The prime minister last week outlined plans to generate 20% of our energy from renewable sources; now just one week later we are back to the old mantra of nuclear power," he said.

"Declarations like this threaten to strangle the renewables industry before it can get even close to that 2020 target."

Brown said Britain's future prosperity in the "new world" of the global economy depended on having, as well as the right infrastructure, a highly skilled workforce.

He said it was "imperative" to compete in "high value-added" services and in manufacturing with India and China.

"Because that requires the best trained workforce in the world, our challenge is to unlock all the talents of all of the people of our country," he said.

"And the nation that shows it can bring out the best in all its people will be the great success story of the global age."

Brown said the government would encourage the unemployed, people on incapacity benefit and lone parents to obtain the training they needed to join the workforce.

He said Britain would soon need only 500,000 unskilled workers, compared with the current 6 million. But 14 million "highly qualified workers" would be needed over the next decade, compared with the 9 million there were today.

He said in the "old world" the problem was lack of jobs, but in the "new world" it was lack of skills.

He said business and the education and voluntary sectors would forge "a new partnership to push through the scale of changes needed to equip people for the future".

"We need to transfer resources from welfare to education and move claimants from passive recipients of welfare benefit to active job and skill seekers," said Brown.

"Quite simply, the old system does not fit the aspirational society the Britain of the future needs to be."

Brown said plans to get people on incapacity benefit back into work would be extended to existing claimants, and not just new ones, as announced last week.

Speaking to the CBI for the first time since replacing Tony Blair, the prime minister gave the audience hope of a change of heart over unpopular plans to replace capital gains tax taper relief with a flat 18% rate, promising he would "continue to listen" to representations.

He blamed the recent problems at the troubled bank Northern Rock on "global turbulence" and said the government had been forced to make "difficult decisions".

But he insisted he would take no risks in the face of "uncertainties" created by the impact of the world economy.

"By definition, responsible government demands that stability will be our first priority - yesterday, today and tomorrow," he said.

    Brown sets out 'new world' vision, G, 26.11.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gordonbrown/story/0,,2217239,00.html

Government in Crisis (I): Victory to the traffickers:
Heroin and cocaine prices on the street are at record lows as seizures plummet

The Serious Organised Crime Agency was to be Tony Blair's FBI, and it took over as the lead agency in the battle against ever more sophisticated drug cartels last year. Unpublished figures demonstrate that – so far – it is losing. Paul Lashmar investigates

Published: 25 November 2007
The Independent on Sunday

Hard drug seizures at the nation's borders have plummeted, leaving heroin and cocaine freely and cheaply available on the nation's streets, an Independent on Sunday investigation can reveal.

Class A drug confiscations at ports and airports have tumbled for the last four years and serious question marks are now being raised about the ability of the UK's "FBI", the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), to combat drug smuggling.

Less than 3 tons of cocaine was seized in 2006-07 compared with over 9 tons in 2004-05 and 1 ton of heroin seized in 2006-07 compared to nearly 2.5 tons in 2004-05, according to official government statistics. Over the same period, ready availability has reduced the street price of heroin by £10 a gram since 2004 to £43. Ten years ago heroin was selling at £70 a gram.

While ministers insist overall drug use is down – mainly due to a fall in cannabis use among the young – the figures hide a disturbing rise in class A drug use, particularly cocaine abuse among young people. The Government's own figures, released quietly last week, reveal there are an estimated 332,000 problem drug users in the UK – almost one in 10 of 15- to 64-year-olds. The research also revealed that many drug dealers believed the risk of arrest was low.

Drug experts expressed dismay last night at the seizure figures, describing them as "absolutely startling", saying that smuggling drugs into Britain was easier than at any time in the last 30 years and questioning whether the agency needs a radical shake-up. The new statistics were cited as an indictment of the Government's drug policy and a further embarrassment for Gordon Brown's administration, which already faces a public crisis of confidence over its handling of the Northern Rock affair, HM Revenue & Customs' loss of 25 million people's personal and banking details and apparent failures to honour the Military Covenant.

Reducing the supply of drugs, preventing young people becoming users and reducing drug-related crime are all cornerstones of Home Office policy. Soca was announced by the Government in 2004 as an agency specifically to spearhead investigation of serious crimes including organised drug smuggling. With an annual budget of £4bn and 4,000 staff, it took over drug investigations from Customs along with the roles of the National Crime Squad, National Crime Intelligence Services and part of MI5's remit in April 2006. But some law enforcement sources fear there is now a "big hole" between Soca, HMRC and police forces in the UK's defences against drug trafficking. The announcement of the agency's formation led to uncertainty among Customs investigators and a change of emphasis since Soca's formation has exacerbated the decline in seizures, according to its critics.

One well-placed senior police officer told the IoS that there "was huge discontent" in police forces about Soca's performance. "Soca is not delivering the service delivered by the old regional crime squads and NCIS." There are similar concerns among Customs officials. The IoS has seen an internal Customs memo written by a senior operations manager for border drugs detection staff which says: "A new departmental strategy is being drawn up post-Soca. It is recognised that the transition to Soca has had a negative impact on Intelligence/Investigation support to Detection."

Customs is now said to be considering reforming its own drugs intelligence department as "we need to make more and bigger seizures". Some intelligence sources suggest that there is so much heroin coming into the UK at the moment that importers are having trouble selling and that some has even been re-exported. The result is burgeoning availability of class A drugs on Britain's streets, highlighted in a recent national survey by the DrugScope agency which showed street prices for illegal drugs are at an all-time low and in some cases dropping.

Trends uncovered by the survey indicate that the UK cocaine market is expanding, with the drug as cheap as it has ever been at an average £43 a gram; 10 years ago it was £50 or more. "There is little if any evidence that current efforts to tackle supply are impacting on availability and price," said Martin Barnes, DrugScope's chief executive. "Dealers are able to meet the demands of different users by creating a two-tier market," with higher-quality cocaine being aimed at wealthy users.

Professor Neil McKeganey, of the Centre for Policy Research and an author of government research on the subject, argued it was hard to know just how much class A drugs is coming into the country at any time or what percentage is seized. But, he said: "In my estimation the UK drug trade, which according to reports this week is worth some £8bn a year, has the capability over the long term to undermine the UK's economic and political stability.

"It is important to create a hostile environment for those who seek to smuggle drugs into the UK. These figures suggest we are being less successful than in the past in doing that. If the figures for seizures are not verifiable and transparent to the public, they cease to be of any use."

Drugs analyst Kathy Gyngell, from the Centre for Policy Studies and the editor of a major 2006 report on drug addiction, said there was no doubt the market, particularly for cocaine powder, is growing. Figures from the Home Office's recent British Crime Survey showed the number of 16- to 24-year-olds in England and Wales who admitted taking cocaine in the previous year has almost doubled from 1998, up from 3.2 per cent to 6.1 per cent in 2006-07. The Chief Constable of Cleveland, Sean Price, recently said the crack cocaine use is now at its highest ever level. "This is the third time since I have been in the police service that crack cocaine has emerged as the drug of choice," he said. "I think this is probably the highest level of usage I have seen in those three times." And the threat is no longer confined to the inner cities, he said. "It is clear that there are very few parts of the UK that haven't experienced some levels of crack cocaine abuse."

Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock, said plummeting seizure figures added to a growing sense of disquiet about Soca's anti-drug performance. "My view of Soca is, and has always been, that it is overcommitted. It is something the Government took on without proper resources. It has become unaccountable ... I think taxpayers and indeed Parliament are entitled to know exactly what these people are doing and whether the policy is right."

Brian Paddick, a former Scotland Yard assistant commissioner and now Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of London, said: "The Government's drugs strategy is failing and their attempts to rectify the situation are ill-conceived. Despite a 20 per cent reduction in cannabis use, Labour are proposing to re-classify cannabis from class C to class B. At the same time there has been an increase in the use of the class A drug cocaine among young people. 'Social' drug takers don't decide what type of drug to take on the basis of what class it is in; they decide on the basis of how dangerous it is and the effects it has. It is not legislation but education that will reduce drug use. Young people in particular need to be told the dangers of taking drugs, the physical effects from doctors and the life-changing effects from recovering addicts whose lives have been ruined by drugs."

Increasingly, drugs experts and spokesmen are alarmed over Soca's selective approach to which major drug importation cases it takes on. Its annual report last May emphasised non-UK seizures, producing a startling figure of 73 tons of cocaine seizures. It did not claim sole responsibility but "partnership" with international agencies. Soca refuses to provide any detail about these offshore seizures. Some 14 tons of this amount had been seized by Royal Navy ships in the Atlantic often working with international partners.

But neither Soca nor the Home Office will give any details of the remaining 59 tons or even if it was heading to the UK. An MP seeking more detail, was told: "It is important that Soca can continue to hide or disguise its involvement in commodity seizures." But David Raynes, a former senior Customs officer and member of the National Drugs Prevention Alliance, is unconvinced. He said: "Smuggling drugs into Britain in 2007 is more risk-free than at any time in 30 years."

Soca's chairman, former MI5 chief Sir Stephen Lander, insists the agency's approach is "a marathon not a sprint" and that he has five years to prove Soca's worth to ministers. A spokesman for Soca said: "Concentrating only on seizures will not prevent drugs being available in the UK in the long term, as suppliers will always seek to replace losses. Soca is, with partners in the UK and globally, focusing on taking out the source suppliers, not the middlemen or street dealers."

'It took just five minutes for someone to offer us drugs'

A virtually limitless supply of drugs of all sorts is available around Camden Town in north London. As tourists and shoppers made their way from the Underground station to the famous market, along the High Street, it took no more than five minutes for a man and a woman to approach us yesterday, offering rocks of crack cocaine for £10.

Camden has the reputation of being the easiest place in London to buy drugs – and, what is more, those buying know that, as our graphic shows, different drugs are sold on neighbouring streets – a little like the market itself, where clothes stalls are in one area, food stalls in another, and household goods in a third. Selling drugs is a mature, semi-formal business.

At lunchtime, with the market in full swing, the police were there in heavy numbers. Dealers simply laid low when they spotted them, and then were back seconds after they moved on, plying their trade on the busy street, openly telling potential customers what it was they had to sell.

Nina Lakhani and Richard Osley

    Government in Crisis (I): Victory to the traffickers: Heroin and cocaine prices on the street are at record lows as seizures plummet, IoS, 25.11.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article3194072.ece

Government in Crisis (II): Captains of calamity:
PM and Darling hit by triple whammy

The fortunes of the premier and Chancellor tumbled in the wake of last week's disasters. But critics disagree on whether this is New Labour's Black Wednesday moment. By Brian Brady

Published: 25 November 2007
The Independent on Sunday

The drink was flowing and the golden couple at the centre of the throng were proving perfect hosts when Alistair Darling invited the press into his new headquarters 11 days ago. It only took the arrival of Gordon Brown to darken the mood. The Chancellor had been chatting cheerfully to his guests when a security guard arrived at his side. "The Prime Minister is downstairs," the aide said quietly. "He's waiting."

It was, effectively, the end of the party. Mr Darling rushed out the door, promising weakly that he would be back soon. His wife Maggie was left to hold the fort.

It was the day that a monumental error by a junior civil servant began to mutate into one of the most embarrassing predicaments yet to assail Mr Brown's government. Four days earlier, Mr Darling had been informed that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had lost the sensitive personal data of 25 million people somewhere between its offices in Washington, Tyne and Wear, and the National Audit Office in London.

On 14 November, the day the Chancellor hosted a reception for the journalists who would be tearing him to shreds within a week, Mr Darling and Mr Brown finally gave up the ghost and instructed the HMRC chairman, Paul Gray, to call in the Metropolitan Police. By the time the nation was let in on the two Scots' appalling secret, almost a week later, Mr Gray had been forced to resign and New Labour's reputation for competence was exposed and shivering in the wind.

It was not even the first of the Government's traumatic disasters of the week. Twenty-four hours before his urgent statement on the child benefit catastrophe, Mr Darling had made the well-trodden journey to the dispatch box to deliver an equally shamefaced update on the continuing crisis at Northern Rock. Whereas he had previously insisted that the taxpayer would not lose out from the £24bn of public money pumped in to prop up the troubled bank, the Chancellor suddenly informed MPs he "expected" to recoup the money when Northern Rock is sold off.

The ambush by some of the nation's most respected military men in the Lords on Thursday was the coup de grâce. The condemnation of Mr Brown's financial commitment to the armed forces, as Chancellor and Prime Minister, was a blow for a man desperate to prove himself a patriot; and the debate over the "part-time" status of his Secretary of State for Defence and Scotland, Des Browne, was a withering comment on his ability to manage a key element of government.

This is the most significant tumble in Mr Brown's fortunes as Prime Minister. Ministers gamely dismissed the significance of the colliding calamities, but by the end of the week the political impact was becoming clear. Opinion polls showed public confidence in the Tories' economic competence soaring, while the proportion of voters confident in Mr Brown and Mr Darling's ability to handle economic problems had more than halved, to 28 per cent, since early September. A further survey yesterday revealed that the improved position Mr Brown had constructed since July had been wiped out, and Labour is back to the levels of support endured during the final days of Tony Blair's regime. A Guardian/ICM poll showed support for both major parties had fallen, but the Tories extended their lead as Labour's standing fell by four points to 31 per cent.

Mr Brown has imitated his predecessor by transplanting his own style of sofa government from the Treasury to Downing Street, but even his allies are beginning to question the standard of advice he is receiving from his inner circle. His morning telephone conferences with lieutenants Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and Douglas Alexander are followed by round-table meetings at 10am that decide how the Government will be run each day.

These confidants are the young Turks who drove the disastrous project to rush Mr Brown into an early general election. If he cannot control political events, he can at least widen his inner circle to take in the advice of people, such as Mr Blair's pollster Lord Gould, with the wisdom to handle disasters when they arise. Mr Brown ended the week in the bunker with two of his closest ministerial allies, but he took the heaviest political flak.

The fabled tipping-point that dictates in a moment the fate of any political leader is hurtling into view. Labour's opponents, at least, are beginning to talk in apocalyptic terms.

"I'm not sure that the magnitude of the events of this week can match the appalling Black Wednesday that we all suffered in 1992," said Michael Dobbs, a former John Major aide and Tory chairman in the mid-1990s. "But there are very strong similarities, because of the talk about the credibility of the Government and its image of competence."

The spectre of Black Wednesday, when the Major government wasted billions trying to prop up the pound, has been revived by all sides. Several older, wearier souls on the Labour benches preferred to view the multiplying dramas with the same sense of gathering doom that gripped them during Jim Callaghan's "Winter of Discontent" in 1978-79.

The comparisons may be excessive, but there is some merit in viewing the crises as more than a series of unfortunate coincidences. Mr Brown is no longer at the Treasury, but it is widely claimed that all three problems that flared up last week had their origins during his tenure there. Union leaders blamed historic job cuts and the merger that created HMRC for the chaos that allowed two disks containing details of 25 million people to be lost in the post; critics claim Mr Brown's regulatory system helped Northern Rock spiral into crisis; and the phalanx of former defence chiefs accuse him of long-term underspending on the forces.

Mr Brown, whose ruthless desire for the premiership was legendary, the "Macavity" Chancellor who always disappeared during a crisis, has nowhere to hide now he is PM. His Chancellor is struggling for the first time in his political life. The overpowering writ of the Treasury will not allow him the luxury of anonymity. Labour MPs find it hard to understand why events have reduced the stoically competent Prime Minister who mastered the terror alerts during his early days in office to the indecisive figure before them last week.

"With Northern Rock or the loss of data it wasn't government policy errors that were shown up," said Lance Price, an inhabitant of Mr Blair's bunker, who rejects any comparison with Mr Major's long decline. "There isn't a big policy divide in the Labour Party and the will to win remains."

Mr Brown's supporters approached Prime Minister's Questions with trepidation last week. Previous performances across the dispatch box from the Tory leader have been dispiriting, with Mr Brown leaden-footed in the face of the onslaught. That the Prime Minister emerged unscathed this time owed much to desperate evasive action: before Mr Cameron had even got to his feet, Mr Brown had apologised for the data fiasco, explained why it had happened, and pledged action to prevent it happening again.

The Labour leader will survive the ordeal, and he might even learn from it, but he will struggle to regain his prized reputation as a safe pair of hands.

Words of advice: What should Brown do next?

Every time Tony Blair had one of his "worst weeks", he would turn to the courtiers of the bedchamber: Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson, Philip Gould, his polling adviser, and Sally Morgan, his fixer. As Gordon Brown's troubles mount – the missing HMRC discs the worst story yet – he turns to his already much-maligned lieutenants. What are they telling him? What should they be telling him? We find out what three old hands and this week's commentators would advise him to do.

Brown needs to go to acting class. His face is a constant giveaway of his inner turmoil

Michael Dobbs, Conservative Party ex-deputy chairman

Brown needs a story, a narrative, a red thread to embroider a picture of the society he wants

Polly Toynbee, 'The Guardian'

Labour is a tired Government with no new ideas... It is too late – Brown's bubble has burst

Lord Bell, Baroness Thatcher's former PR guru

Brown shows all the signs of becoming a unique creation: Nixon mixed with Mr Bean

Leo McKinstry, 'Daily Express'

At least, after even more bad news for the Government today, things can only get better

Charlie Whelan, 'The Daily Telegraph'

Mr Brown could become the Steve McClaren of politics. Something quite nasty is going to happen

Matthew Parris, 'The Times'

Gordon Brown is still fighting Tony Blair when he ought to be leading a Government

Martin Kettle, 'The Guardian'

The idea that the Government is capable of managing change is no longer sustainable

Peter Oborne, 'Daily Mail'

Hideous hat-trick: The crises that have rocked Downing Street

Northern Rock

What we know: In September the bank got an emergency bail-out from the Bank of England amid cash-flow problems caused by the US sub-prime crisis. The bank's troubles deepened as panicked savers withdrew £2bn within days and shares plummeted. Alistair Darling dramatically guaranteed all Northern Rock deposits, as the BoE entered talks with potential buyers. Under-fire Rock chief executive Adam Applegarth resigned, as bidders circled. Mr Darling now admits he has pumped £24bn into the bank and might not get it all back.

What we don't know: When did the Government know of the crisis? When did the Rock bosses know, and did they report the problems early enough? Did the Treasury do anything to avoid it?

What we need to know: How long will the "short-term" credit facility last, and how much will it cost the taxpayer? Could the bank be nationalised? Will major investors allow a sell-off that undervalues their shares? How much of savers' deposits will be protected? Will the sub-prime crisis cause more problems for other UK banks?

The HMRC data catastrophe

What we know: A "junior official" downloaded child benefit data, containing the personal details of 25 million people, on to two computer disks and sent them unrecorded to the National Audit Office in London. The disks never arrived and, after a frantic search, the police were called in and HMRC chief Paul Gray resigned. Banks were alerted as the revelation sparked huge fears over the security of private information, including bank accounts, as well as political embarrassment for the Government.

What we don't know: Where are the disks? Have they fallen into the wrong hands and are we all at risk?

What we need to know: How was the breach in procedures allowed? Were more senior HMRC officials implicated in the disaster? Is all personal data held by the Government at risk? Does this episode raise serious questions over future Government IT schemes, including ID cards?

The military ambush

What we know: A posse of former chiefs of defence staff lined up to condemn the Prime Minister's "contempt" for the armed services, complaining about the treatment of personnel and the amount of money ploughed into the defence budget. The senior veterans insist that Gordon Brown's alleged lack of interest in the forces stretches back to his time as Chancellor when, they claim, he consistently obstructed Tony Blair's attempts to extract more money for defence spending. The assault also reopened the debate over the Prime Minister's decision to make Des Browne Secretary of State for both Defence and Scotland.

What we don't know: How deeply does Mr Brown value the armed services and the Military Covenant? Is Mr Browne content with the spending settlement for his department?

What we need to know: Will Mr Brown find any money for the forces to cover the alleged shortfalls over the next few years? Will he continue with the "part-time" Secretary of State for Defence or return it to a full-time, single-ministry position that reflects the importance of the job?

    Government in Crisis (II): Captains of calamity: PM and Darling hit by triple whammy, IoS, 25.11.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3194075.ece

Government in Crisis (III): Now Defence Secretary's £1bn plea is rebuffed

Gordon Brown is coming under unprecedented fire from the armed forces as they demand more taxpayers' money. Des Browne has joined their fight. Brian Brady and Jonathan Owen investigate

Published: 25 November 2007
The Independent on Sunday

Des Browne is in desperate negotiations to prise out up to £1bn extra from the Treasury, amid complaints that the Government is treating the armed forces with "contempt".

The Secretary of State for Defence held an urgent meeting with Gordon Brown last week as both men came under increasing pressure to prove their commitment to the military.

The Independent on Sunday understands that Mr Browne failed in an initial attempt to convince the Prime Minister to sanction the extra cash – and was told not to trouble his boss with further concerns over the defence budget.

Mr Browne's allies last night claimed the plea for extra help proved he acknowledged the deepening concerns of service chiefs, but they dismissed claims that he was considering resigning over the stalemate. The frosty exchange at the top of the Government came as the Prime Minister faced escalating condemnation from senior defence figures over his "disinterest" in the forces.

The Prime Minister was last week subjected to an unprecedented personal attack from five former chiefs of defence staff with an across-the-board condemnation of his treatment of the forces.

The attack also revived complaints about the decision to make Mr Browne share his duties with the post of Secretary of State for Scotland. Mr Browne (below) railed against claims that he was a "part-time" Defence chief, protesting that he was effectively looking after Scotland in his spare time.

But an analysis of his diary reveals that he has had to travel regularly to Scotland and attend more than 40 separate Scotland Office engagements over the past four months alone. On some occasions he was attending Scottish events when the Ministry of Defence announced that British soldiers had been killed overseas.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has now seized on the complaints to demand that Mr Browne be permitted to concentrate on his main job.

"At a time when our forces are engaged in two highly dangerous missions in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said in a letter to the Prime Minister, "the need for the Defence Secretary to be able to concentrate full-time on his role is surely a matter of plain common sense. People do not understand why you have chosen to combine the job of Defence Secretary with Scottish Secretary at such a crucial time."

The crisis threatens Britain's national security, according to Baroness Park of Monmouth, who for 30 years combined a career as a diplomat with running spies for MI6.

She said the situation was "a major national crisis and a major national scandal," and has accused the Treasury of starving the forces year after year "while the Government continues to pile more tasks on them".

Lady Park warned: "Both strategically and practically, the defence of the realm is in greater danger than for many years. There is one major cause and one single remedy – resources, both human and financial.

"No one doubts the high morale of our forces in the field, made up of comradeship, courage, pride in their profession and battle skills, and their families do all they can to support that morale. Nevertheless, stretched elastic can break."

Mr Browne is believed to have spoken to the Prime Minister in his office early last week over the demand for an extra £1bn for the MoD from the recent government spending review. A central element of his case is a dispute with the Treasury over who will pay for equipment urgently requested by military commanders on the battlefield.

A little-noticed change, announced earlier this month means that the MoD will have to cover half the cost of "urgent operational requirements" above a fixed figure agreed with the Treasury. In the past, a special Treasury reserve fund has been used if troops on the battlefield urgently need to buy body armour, armoured vehicles and other military equipment.

The problems at the MoD have been laid bare by an internal briefing that reveals more than two-fifths of the British military would struggle to get on to a war footing in the timescale laid down by military planners.

Defence chiefs admit that fighting a war on two fronts has damaged the readiness of the armed forces to meet further commitments elsewhere. In a document passed to the MPs' Defence Committee, the MoD said: "Owing to the continuing high level of operational commitment, we do not now expect to reach the target level by April 2008."

    Government in Crisis (III): Now Defence Secretary's £1bn plea is rebuffed, IoS, 25.11.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3194081.ece

I'll change, vows PM after week of crises


Brown breaks with his exclusive inner circle as Labour slumps in polls

Sunday November 25, 2007
The Observer
Nicholas Watt, political editor and Patrick Wintour in Kampala


A chastened Gordon Brown has told key allies that he going to 'radically alter' the composition of his inner circle which has been criticised for being too small and excluding senior members of the Cabinet from major decision-making.

As ministers lick their wounds after Labour's most difficult week since Brown took over, the Prime Minister has issued orders to end the apparently favourable treatment enjoyed by his closest allies in the Cabinet.

More senior members of the Cabinet are being told that they will be welcome to come and 'chew the fat' with Brown after ministers complained that the Prime Minister was limiting his inner circle to well-established allies including Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, Ed Balls, the schools secretary, and Ed Miliband, the cabinet office minister.

Geoff Hoon, the chief whip, and Jack Straw, the justice secretary - two veteran Cabinet ministers known as 'greybeards' - are being promoted as key members of the new inner circle. 'Geoff is in No 10 all the time when he's not in parliament,' one Labour insider said. 'Jack Straw is involved.'

There was even a suggestion that Straw could perform a role similar to that played by Willie Whitelaw, Margaret Thatcher's revered deputy, who professed no political ambitions of his own. 'Jack Straw can have a strong relationship with Gordon because he is at a different stage of his career to younger members of the Cabinet,' one source said.

Brown is reluctant to talk about changes because he does not believe that anyone has been excluded from decision-making. But there is an acknowledgment that some Cabinet ministers with less strong historic links to the prime minister experience a different dialogue to old friends.

'There is further to go on this,' one senior figure said about the changes to the way Brown will deal with cabinet ministers. 'Things change and evolve over time.'

The changes come as Brown prepares a fightback after Labour's most miserable week in 15 years after Revenue and Customs admitted that two CDs with the details of 25 million people were lost in the post. Brown believes the government entered perilous waters last week after what is being described as the 'unforgivable and shocking' loss of the details of half the population.

Brown also made clear in Kampala yesterday the depth of the challenge he has faced in recent weeks when he said that the collapse of Northern Rock in September was caused by 'a uniquely deficient business model'.

During the trip he gave his gloomiest prediction yet on the world economy, saying growth in the US economy is going to slow quickly in the next three months, forcing a slowdown in growth in the EU. Brown claimed that his government has already taken the tough economic decisions to avert a recession in Britain, vowing 'we can steer a course of stability'.

'I believe because of the way we have shown that we can run the macro economic policy with stability that we in Britain can steer a course of growth over the next period of time even in this very uncertain and unstable world,' he said. 'It is possible for us having made the right decisions on monetary policy to steer a course of stability through this far more turbulent economy.'

Brown, who flies back to Britain today from the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, will kick this off when he speaks to the Confederation of British Industry this week.

The government's difficult position was confirmed in a Guardian/ICM poll which showed Labour has slumped to 31 per cent (down four points), its lowest level since Tony Blair's last days in office, behind the Tories on 37 per cent, down three points. The Liberal Democrats are up three points on 23 per cent.

But Brown rejected suggestions that he faces the same fate as John Major, who experienced a slow political death after Britain was ejected from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on Black Wednesday in September 1992.

    I'll change, vows PM after week of crises, O, 25.11.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2216635,00.html

3.30pm GMT update

Brown apologises for data blunder

Wednesday November 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Deborah Summers, politics editor, and Allegra Stratton

The government has apologised to the country for the loss of two CDs containing the personal information of 25 million people.

Gordon Brown, the prime minister, today faced down loud barracking and made an official apology for the loss of the discs. The CDs are still missing.

His apology followed a round of morning interviews by the chancellor, Alistair Darling, in which he admitted his confidence had been shaken.

"I profoundly regret and apologise for the inconvenience caused," Brown told MPs at prime minister's questions.

Brown announced a wide-ranging review of the procedures for ensuring such information remains safe and that he had asked Sir Gus O'Donnell, the cabinet secretary, and security experts to work with the government departments to check those procedures.

Brown also said the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, would be given the power to spot-check government departments.

The Tory leader, David Cameron, accused the government of "systemic failure".

In a thinly veiled reference to the chancellor, Brown was asked whether any member of the cabinet had offered to resign in the last two weeks. He replied: "No, and nor should they."

Cameron tested whether the loss of this just under half the population's data had given the prime minister cause to question the government's planned national ID Card system.

"This appalling blunder comes at a time when the government is planning a national identity register to draw together private and personal details of every single person in the country.

"Will the events of the last few days cause you to stop and think about this policy?"

Brown said he had already announced inquiries into the data loss and said that 22 out of 25 European countries had ID cards, before attacking the Conservative's own position on the issue.

"Your own security advisor proposes identity cards. Your own reviewer of the national police force says he is in favour of identity cards. "What we've got to ensure is that identity fraud is avoided and the way to do that is to say that where people have passport information we will have the biometric support necessary so people can feel confident that their identity is protected."

Darling told BBC radio this morning that the loss of British citizen's data was "catastrophic", "unprecedented" and "unforgiveable" but insisted that today wasn't his "Black Wednesday".

The government yesterday disclosed that the personal records of 7.25 million families claiming child benefit, including individuals' dates of birth, addresses, bank accounts and national insurance numbers had been lost in the post, opening up the threat of mass identity fraud and theft from personal bank accounts.

They went missing in the internal post after a junior official at HM Revenue & Customs in Washington, Tyne and Wear, breached all government security rules by sending them by courier to the National Audit Office in London.

A frantic, secret police search was launched but it failed to locate the discs, containing information on almost half the British population.

Darling this morning said that the police had spoken to the people responsible for the loss and that as far as was known there was no indication that the two CDs - which the chancellor described as looking like "ordinary CDs of the sort people will be aware of" - had "fallen into the wrong hands or been used for fraudulent activity".

He admitted there had "almost certainly been breaches of the Data Protection Act" as a result of procedures not being followed.

Darling revealed that although the information on the CDs was not encrypted, it was password-protected.

"There are other things on these CDs that would put a barrier to finding out what was on them. But the sheer scale of this information should never ever have left the building in which it was stored."

He also defended the government's proposed ID card scheme against attacks that it would be wracked by similar losses of data.

"The advantage of ID cards is that using biometric [data] you can be sure the people who are using it are who they say they are," he said.

"Of course it shakes confidence ... People are entitled to trust the government to look after information that was given to it."

The chancellor said he had appointed Kieran Poynter of PriceWaterhouseCoopers to look at the procedures in place at Revenues & Customs and recommend what can be tightened to make sure it does not happen again.

Asked about whether the 2005 merger of Revenue & Customs, the allegedly poor quality of IT systems in use and job cuts the service has been undergoing may have contributed to today's breach of security, the chancellor said: "It is not the merger, it is not the reduction in staff that led to procedures being breached.

"There are rules that mean you can't download this info and stick it in the post. And as for the computer systems, some are recent some are elderly but in asking ourselves what has gone wrong here the rules appear to have been breached with catastrophic results," he said.

Darling said the government was working with banks to make sure those accounts that might be affected are protected. He has also asked members of the public to be vigilant.

Last night the information commissioner, conducting a broad inquiry on government data privacy, told the Guardian he was demanding more powers to enter government offices without warning for spot-checks.

He said he wanted new criminal penalties for reckless disregard of procedures. He also disclosed that only last week he had sought assurances from the Home Office on limiting information to be stored on ID cards.

"This could not be more serious and has to be a serious wake-up call to the whole of government. We have been warning about these dangers for more than a year.

"The frightening aspect of this episode is that it just does not matter what laws, rules, procedures and regulations are in place, if there is no proper enforcement of those rules."

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, described the security breach as "catastrophic", urging Gordon Brown to drop his search for a vision and "just get a grip".

He said: "Public confidence in the government and its ability to protect information has been destroyed."

Osborne insisted that the blunders were the "nail in the coffin" for ID cards.

The Revenue & Customs chief, Sir Paul Gray, who is generally well regarded in Whitehall, resigned yesterday.

"This is not the way I would have planned my departure," he said. He had apparently been concerned for months about security lapses inside his department.

It was not the first time that the information had been provided to the NAO. Details of every family with children under the age of 16 were sent to the spending watchdog in March and then returned.

But a second request led to a further dispatch via TNT in October and on that occasion the discs with the data went missing. A third dispatch was subsequently sent by registered post successfully.

The NAO pointed out that the information it had requested from Revenue & Customs, for an independent sample survey, was never meant to include personal addresses, bank information or details of the parents involved.

The HMRC official who sent the CDs did not tell senior officials about the loss because he assumed the package was delayed, the HMRC said.

The data went missing on October 18 but the loss was not reported to senior HMRC management until November 8, three weeks later.

Darling said he was informed on November 10, and told Brown within 30 minutes. He explained that the delay in telling parliament was partly due to banks requesting time to monitor potentially suspicious activity.

    Brown apologises for data blunder, G, 21.11.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0,,2214566,00.html

Rail passengers face anti-terror searches

· Security at shopping malls to guard against car bombs
· Guidance for cinemas, theatres and restaurants

Thursday November 15, 2007
Guardian
Alan Travis and Patrick Wintour


Rail passengers at Britain's largest stations face being searched and having their bags screened as part of a package of national security measures unveiled by Gordon Brown yesterday.

The PM said he hoped inconvenience could be minimised but the checks were needed alongside new concrete anti-car bomb barriers and vehicle exclusion zones outside airport terminals, shopping centres and the 250 busiest rail stations.

The measures follow a review by Brown's security adviser, Lord West, on how best to protect crowded public places, hubs in the transport network and more than 100 sensitive installations, including nuclear power stations, after this summer's failed terror attacks in Glasgow and London.

New guidance is also to be sent to thousands of cinemas, theatres, restaurants, hotels, sporting venues, hospitals, schools and places of worship advising them to train staff to be more vigilant and to carry out searches and practise evacuation drills. The programme will be backed up by the recruitment of 160 "counter-terrorism advisers" by local authorities.

The list of extra security measures was leavened by the prospect that the ban on taking more than one bag of hand luggage aboard planes leaving Britain will be progressively eased from January. However, size restrictions on liquids and cabin luggage will remain in force.

The Department for Transport said later it had no plans to install permanent security screens but said trials had already taken place using portable systems and sniffer dogs.

The prime minister coupled the announcement with disclosing some elements of the detailed national security strategy being worked on in Whitehall, with a strong emphasis on stepping up the effort to tackle the spread of extremism in a renewed "hearts and minds" drive.

In particular, he announced that £240m is to be spent by the Home Office on policing in order to focus as much on "preventing the next generation as pursuing current targets". The hearts and minds drive will involve internet companies, the media, universities, schools, mosques, youth clubs and prisons in moves to counter the influence of radical fundamentalists.

Brown told MPs that West had uncovered "no major failures in our protective security", although the security adviser's review is not being published to avoid alerting terrorists to any weak spots.

At the same time the Home Office announced it had awarded the main contract for its £1.2bn "e-borders" programme to ensure that the personal details of everyone who travels into and out of Britain are logged in advance so they can be tracked against US-style "no fly" lists. Immigration airline liaison officers posted abroad are to be given the on-the-spot power to cancel visas to prevent travel.

The £650m contract signed with a consortium led by US defence company Raytheon will involve up to 90 separate pieces of information being supplied to the security services before a passenger flies to or from Britain. The programme aims to achieve 100% coverage by 2014.

Mr Brown also confirmed an intention to set up a single, 25,000-strong, border force, merging the immigration service with customs and some visa staff. He indicated that legislation would be introduced to ensure that its officers have police-style powers to detain and investigate criminal and terror suspects for up to nine hours.

A detailed review published by the Cabinet Office yesterday of the structure of the new force detailed the danger of creating a national police force if it included police officers as well. However, the review explicitly says the door has been left open to merger in the longer term.

Public sector union leaders warned yesterday of teething problems in recent trials in which immigration officers had been expected to do customs work with less than three hours' training, and customs offices expected to carry out key roles such as "passenger profiling".

David Cameron gave a broad welcome to the national security package, including the checks at rail stations, but questioned how the battle for hearts and minds could be won without banning groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and Hizbullah in Britain.

The main measures

 

Protecting public places

Travel Screening of baggage and passenger searches at some large rail stations but one-bag-only luggage rule to be lifted at airports in January. Barriers against car bomb attacks at 250 busiest rail stations, airport terminals, ports and more than 100 sensitive installations.

Other crowded places Guidance to be issued to thousands of cinemas, theatres, restaurants, hotels, sporting venues, commercial centres, hospitals, schools and places of worship. Up to 160 counter-terrorism advisers to train civilian staff to identify suspect activity and ensure premises have secure emergency exits, effective CCTV and regular searches and evacuation drills.

Security Service

Staff numbers to rise from 3,300 to more than 4,000. Dedicated regional counter-terrorism units with more than 2,000 police and support staff to investigate those who recruit terrorists and promote hate. An extra £240m for the Home Office to "prevent the next generation of terrorists pursuing current targets". Extra £70m to be spent on community projects to counter violent extremism.

Terror trials

A single senior judge to be nominated to manage all terrorism cases and a single senior prosecutor to handle violent extremism cases. Fourteen new specially protected courtrooms to be built.

Unified border force

25,000-strong agency uniting Borders and Immigration Agency, Customs and UK Visas staff. All officers to have powers of arrest and detention for criminal as well as immigration offences. Overseas airline liaison officers to be given power to revoke visas and operate "no fly lists". £650m contract signed yesterday for the £1.2bn "eborders" programme to log all movements in and out of the UK by 2014. Checks on people leaving the country to be restored.

Isolating extremism

New police and security intelligence unit to identify those at risk of falling under influence of extremist groups. Series of events at home and abroad, including Pakistan, to counter extremist propaganda. Home secretary to invite largest internet companies to counter online incitement to hatred. Television and newspaper editors to debate terrorism in the media. Charity Commission to ensure that voluntary organisations are not exploited by extremists.

 

Education

Debate to be held over how to ensure extremists cannot impose their views while maintaining academic freedom. Museums, libraries and archives to agree common approach to dealing with inflammatory material. Headteachers' forum to advise on protecting young people in schools. Schools of different faiths to be twinned in £2m scheme.
 

Faith

Green paper on encouraging interfaith groups in every constituency. European centre for excellence in Islamic studies to be set up and greater understanding of contribution of Islam to European history and culture to be promoted.

    Rail passengers face anti-terror searches, G, 15.11.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2211224,00.html

Brown to reassure Washington that US remains Britain's closest ally

· Mansion House speech will stress shared values
· Better relations with EU opens way for reform

Monday November 12, 2007
Guardian
Tania Branigan, political correspondent

Gordon Brown will seek to reassure the United States tonight that the special relationship still lies at the heart of British foreign policy, following concerns that transatlantic ties have been weakened since his predecessor departed.

In the annual Mansion House foreign policy speech, the prime minister will stress that America remains Britain's most important ally and shares its values. He will welcome its improving relations with the rest of Europe, arguing that paves the way for reform of international institutions such as the United Nations - allowing them to tackle issues ranging from the environment to turbulence in global financial markets effectively.

"He is emphasising how important our relationship with the US is, to ensure there are no misunderstandings there," said a No 10 source.

Brown's first visit to Washington as prime minister this summer was overshadowed by the foreign minister Lord Malloch-Brown's suggestion that Britain and the US would no longer be "joined at the hip". Malloch-Brown, formerly UN deputy secretary general, yesterday attempted to dispel growing speculation about his own future by insisting he would remain in office.

In a television interview yesterday, Brown said: "I want to send a message more generally about the foreign policy of our country. I think it's important to remember that Britain is part of a network of relationships around the world - we're part of the European Union, we're part of Nato, we're part of the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth heads of government meeting will be held in Uganda very soon - and the strength of our relationship with America is incredibly important to the future of the world. If we're going to rebuild the international institutions as I think we should be doing, to meet the challenges of the next stage, then we want to work with America to enable us to do so."

He said that central to the way Britain conducts its foreign policy was the great change taking place in diplomatic relations which saw Germany, France and the EU moving more closely with the US, a position he said was to the benefit of Britain and the world. "America is our most important ally, it will always be because of the values we share with America," he told Sunday Live on Sky News."There's a great opportunity for all of us to work together to reshape the international institutions, to make them fit-for-purpose for the decade that we are in, rather than the 1940s [when they were created]."

Asked whether he would back the US in military action against Iran, Brown said: "The diplomatic route is bearing some success and it's got to be stepped up over the next period of time, if that becomes necessary."

He added: "I think people are genuinely worried about the nuclear ambitions of Iran, in contravention of everything that has been promised. I believe, however, that while nothing should be ruled out it is important to say that the sanctions we are placing on Iran are having some effect."

While Brown's foreign policy may now be viewed as in line with that of Tony Blair, a new BBC documentary screened this week will detail their conflicts on other issues. In an interview for The Blair Years, Blair said: "I'm not saying there weren't real problems, but it never bothered me." He said there was no point in going into the past in a way that would be "unhelpful" to Brown.

The Mansion House speech comes amid increasing speculation about Brown's minister for Asia, Africa and the UN. Malloch-Brown attempted to fight off a whispering campaign in Westminster yesterday, telling the Observer: "I will not be put off by these unfair, nasty attacks." He added: "Having ripped my family up from the US ... this is hardly the time to say goodbye."

He has faced repeated media attacks; notably a ferocious assault in this week's Spectator, which pointed out the only other ministers with grace and favour homes were the prime minister and the chancellor. The Sunday Times yesterday claimed that Foreign Office officials had dubbed him "Bollock-Brown". He had been forced to "clarify" remarks in the Lords, after he implied negotiations could be held with Hamas and Hizbollah.

    Brown to reassure Washington that US remains Britain's closest ally, G, 12.11.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,2209555,00.html

Queen's speech

Brown puts emphasis on education and housing

Tuesday November 6, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Deborah Summers, politics editor


Gordon Brown today stamped his authority on parliament with a Queen's speech that put education and housing at the top of the political agenda and paved the way for controversial new measures on crime and immigration.

However, he refrained from detailing what is likely to be the most controversial aspect of the new security bill - increasing the amount of time terror suspects can be questioned by police without charge from the current limit of 28 days.

The legislation will ban convicted terrorists from travelling overseas and provide additional funding for protecting key sites from terrorist attacks.

The 29-bill package - which also included measures on health, climate change and nuclear power - was intended to "respond to the rising aspirations" of the British people, the speech said.

Mr Brown will be hoping his legislative programme will draw a line under a turbulent few weeks for the government, which have seen the Tories surge ahead in the polls.

There were few surprises in today's speech, which was largely trailed in a "pre-Queen's speech" made by Mr Brown in July.

However, he used the ceremonial occasion to draw battle lines with the Tories over party funding, with an implicit threat to force through a bill that would cap total spending during a full parliament to £150m.

The bill would also apply controls on local spending outside the election campaign period for the first time, limiting the kind of funding undertaken by Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative treasurer, who has poured cash into key marginals.

It does not have clear Conservative support.

In line with expectations, parents will be required by law to help make sure their children stay in education until the age of 18.

A new education and skills bill, confirmed in the Queen's speech, will raise the age at which teenagers can leave compulsory education for the first time in 35 years.

However, the proposals have hit opposition from children's campaigners and the Conservatives, while parents have questioned them.

The government also confirmed its commitment to pressing ahead with reforms to the planning system, which have attracted criticism from green groups.

The speech included a planning reform bill, which the government said would enable the UK to meet needs for housing and infrastructure and would address the challenges of climate change, energy supplies and pressures on the environment.

Under the proposals, the UK will become the first country in the world to introduce a legally-binding framework to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

On foreign affairs, Mr Brown sets himself firmly against a referendum on the EU reform treaty, with confirmation of a bill to ratify the Lisbon treaty.

There were also renewed promises to continue working with the Iraqi and Afghanistan governments, and the government said it would continue to address international concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.

One measure in the package not flagged up by Mr Brown in July was legislation to protect depositors and ensure confidence in the banking system, with the step following the Northern Rock crisis.

In other moves, employers will be required to contribute to workers' pensions, and employees are to have extended rights to request flexible working in order to look after children.

Mr Brown will flesh out the proposals this afternoon when MPs begin a debate on the measures, announced amid traditional pomp by the Queen from her throne in the House of Lords.

    Brown puts emphasis on education and housing, G, 6.11.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/queensspeech2007/story/0,,2206104,00.html

Brown: we need bill of rights as well as Human Rights Act

Constitutional reform plans will expand MP powers and end protest ban

Thursday October 25, 2007
Guardian
Alan Travis and Patrick Wintour

Gordon Brown will try today to restore his reputation as a prime minister driven by principle by setting out his plans to reform the constitution with a new British bill of rights and duties that builds on the existing Human Rights Act.

Proposals to ease the restrictions on the right to protest near parliament and a limited "confirmatory role" for MPs in the appointment of senior judges are also expected to be among the options detailed in three official consultation papers to be published today.

The plans which were discussed by the cabinet on Tuesday, have been mainly worked up by the justice secretary, Jack Straw. They are designed to renew democratic debate by making the executive more accountable to parliament and take forward the "governance of Britain agenda", first outlined by Mr Brown in July within days of becoming prime minister.

In a speech today to the human rights organisation Liberty, Mr Brown is expected to renew his commitment to constitutional reform and firmly reject Conservative demands to repeal the Human Rights Act.

He is expected to argue that abolishing the act would prevent British citizens from asking British courts to protect their fundamental rights, forcing lengthy delays as they appeal instead to Strasbourg judges who are less likely to appreciate the British context of their case.

The plans are opposed by David Cameron who has promised to introduce his own British bill of rights to replace the Human Rights Act.

Mr Brown is expected to acknowledge that the introduction of a British bill of rights and duties can only be created after extensive and wide consultation over a long period of time, but hopes that a statement of British values will be developed as part of the first steps.

Ministers believe a British bill of rights and duties could provide an explicit recognition that human rights come with responsibilities for every citizen and must be exercised in a way that respects the human rights of others.

They acknowledge that there is force in recent criticism that the way the Human Rights Act has been implemented has not always attached the highest priority to public safety and that individual rights - such as the release of prisoners - must be balanced by the appropriate protection of the public. The bill of rights would build on the existing Human Rights Act by giving greater clarity and legislative force to this commitment.

Last night Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "The government is going to have to work hard to demonstrate that its bill of rights is any more progressive than Mr Cameron's proposal. Fundamental rights belong to all human beings, not just to free-born Englishmen."

The three consultation papers are expected to include options for constitutional change over the power to make war and sign treaties, giving MPs the final decision over committing troops; over the appointment of senior judges to the courts; and the right to demonstrate in the vicinity of parliament.

Restrictions on protests near parliament were introduced in the 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. The power led to the conviction of Maya Anne Evans, a vegan cook from Hastings, for reading out the names of Britain's war dead in Iraq near the gates of Downing Street. It is believed that Mr Straw now wants to consult on how to get a "better balance" between the need for public order with the right to public dissent.

While the restrictions on individual unauthorised protests may be eased it is expected though that ministers will retain the long-standing requirement over many decades for large protest rallies which are staged in and around Westminster to notify the police in advance and abide by any conditions that they impose.

    Brown: we need bill of rights as well as Human Rights Act, G, 25.10.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gordonbrown/story/0,,2198584,00.html

5pm update

UK Iraq troops to be cut to 2,500

Monday October 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Deborah Summers and Hélène Mulholland

The number of British troops in Iraq will be reduced to 2,500 by spring next year, Gordon Brown pledged today amid Tory accusations that he was recycling old announcements.

In a Commons statement to MPs, the prime minister outlined "two distinct stages" to the strategy of handing security control of Basra province to Iraqi forces.

Mr Brown said that three out of the four southern Iraqi provinces in the UK's area of control had already been transferred to Iraqi control.

The next phase of handing over security to the Iraqis was to move from a combat role in the rest of the province to an "overwatch" role, he said.

He told a packed House of Commons on its first day back today: "In 2004 it was agreed with the Iraqi government that in each of the country's 18 provinces security responsibility would progressively be returned to the Iraqi authorities as and when the conditions were right. Now we are in a position to announce further progress."

In the first stage, UK forces would train and mentor Iraqi security forces, secure supply routes to the Iranian border and be able to provide back-up to local security forces.

Troop numbers would be reduced from 5,500 to 4,500 and then to 4,000.

A second stage will follow this, whereby, subject to conditions on the ground, force numbers in southern Iraq will be reduced to just 2,500.

"Then in the spring of next year - and guided as always by the advice of our military commanders - we plan to move to a second stage of overwatch where the collation would maintain a more limited re-intervention capacity and where the main focus will be on training and monitoring," Mr Brown added.

Mr Brown advised MPs there would be an additional 500 troops stationed outside Iraq to support the efforts of UK troops inside the country.

He would not disclose exactly where for security reasons but said it would be "in the region".

Mr Cameron used his parliamentary reply to accuse Mr Brown of behaviour that was "unacceptable" for a prime minister over his decision to announce cuts in British troops in Iraq and not in parliament last week.

Mr Brown announced a 1,000-strong reduction in troops during a visit to Baghdad which clashed with the Conservative party conference in Blackpool.

Mr Cameron demanded: "On reflection, do you agree that the way in which you made the announcement about troop withdrawals last week and the way it was briefed to the press were mistakes?

He added: "Isn't it the case that 500 of them had already been announced and 270 of them were already back in the country?

"I have to say to you, this is of a different order of magnitude to what we have had from you over the last decade.

"This is not double-counting of government spending, this is not just spinning the good bits of a budget, this is about dealing with people's lives and the families of our brave servicemen."

Mr Cameron added that now troops were returning there ought to be an independent inquiry into the war so lessons could be learned.

Without directly responding to Mr Cameron's point about the 270 troops, Mr Brown told the house: "The announcement I made in Iraq last week was what would happen in the next few weeks. This is the long-term strategy for overwatch, which means that the numbers of our troops fall from 5,500 to 2,500."

He added: "I make no apologies for visiting our troops in Iraq. The criticism of me would have been if I had come to the house without visiting our troops in Iraq.

"I make no apology for spending time talking to the Iraqi government, for talking to the prime minister, the vice-president, the economic ministers and for talking to the military commanders on the ground."

"If we are to have a responsible politics in this country," he continued to Tory jeers, "then ministers who hold responsibility for the safety and security of our armed forces must visit our armed forces, listen to what they say, draw on their advice and then make their decisions - which is what I am announcing today."

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Brown also paid tribute to local Iraqi staff who have worked in "extremely difficult circumstances" for British armed forces.

He promised a package of financial payments to aid resettlement in "Iraq or elsewhere in the region", with special provision for some to be given asylum in the UK.

To qualify, staff had to be current employees of more than 12 months and completed their work, he said.

Mr Brown also announced an extra 140 Mastiff patrol vehicles - used to detect mines and roadside bombs - to maintain the safety of British armed forces.

The prime minister also promised a doubling of internet terminals and a free wireless internet service for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan so they can email their families.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, welcomed the government's "change of heart" over British troops in Iraq, but he drew shouts of support from his own party and cries of protest elsewhere, when he insisted: "The harsh truth is that British involvement in Iraq has been catastrophic. We have paid dearly in lives and reputations.

"Isn't it time to acknowledge that the presence of British troops in Iraq no longer serves any military or political purpose?"

He went on: "Our obligation now is to our young men and women in our armed forces. The deployment in Iraq, where little more can be done, is prejudicial to our efforts in Afghanistan where success is still possible."

He said it was now time to set a timetable and framework for the withdrawal of British forces in Iraq.

As Stop the War demonstrators protested outside parliament over the occupation in Iraq, Mr Brown hit back: "I would have thought the Liberal Party, with their Gladstonian background, would have recognised the obligations we have internationally and particularly in relation to United Nations' resolutions, calling on us to support the democracy of the Iraqi people."

He said that Britain would discharge her obligations. "I hope you will support us in the support we give to the Iraqi people."

    UK Iraq troops to be cut to 2,500, G, 8.10.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2186420,00.html

Brown: there will be no autumn election

Saturday October 6, 2007
Press Association
Guardian Unlimited

Prime Minister Gordon Brown set out his reasons for not calling an autumn election tonight - saying he wanted to be judged on "vision" not "competence" at dealing with crises.

The Prime Minister told the BBC: "I will not be calling an election, and let me say why.

"Over the summer months we have had to deal with crises - we have had to deal with foot and mouth, terrorism, floods, financial crises.

"And yes we could have had an election based on competence, and I hope people would have understood that we acted competently.

"But what I want to do is show people the vision that we have for the future of this country in housing and health and education and I want the chance, in the next phase of my premiership, to develop and show people the policies that are going to make a huge difference and show the change in the country itself."

The decision to abandon any thoughts of an autumn poll came after the latest opinion poll gave the Conservatives a big lead in key marginal seats.

It is bound to lead to charges that Mr Brown is running scared after Conservative leader David Cameron's speech to his party conference saw the Tories eat straight back into Labour's poll lead.

Tory leader David Cameron said it was a "humiliating retreat" for Mr Brown.

"The reason the Prime Minister has cancelled this election is because the Conservative Party is making the arguments about the changes this country needs and people are responding very positively to our proposals.

"The Prime Minister has shown great weakness and indecision and it is quite clear he has not been focused on running the country these last few months; he has been trying to spin his way into a general election campaign and now has had to make this humiliating retreat.

"The big disappointment for me - and I think for millions of people in this country - is that we are now going to have to wait possibly two years before we can get the real change we need in our country."

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said: "The Prime Minister has belatedly put an end to the charade of last few weeks. He could have prevented needless speculation by making this announcement long before now. Gordon Brown has been acting in the interests of the Labour Party and not in the interests of the country."

The announcement came as a new opinion poll gave the Tories a six-point lead in the key marginal seats where they are battling Labour. The ICM survey of 83 constituencies for tomorrow's News of the World suggested the Tories would defeat 49 Labour MPs - including several ministers, among them Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

It put David Cameron's Conservatives on 44% and Labour on 38% and also found Labour voters were far less likely to turn out. The astonishing turnaround in poll fortunes would have seen Gordon Brown lose his majority altogether and be faced with a hung parliament if he had gone ahead with an autumn poll.

But today's move has surprised many in his party and among trade union officials who believed that a November 1 poll was a near certainty.

The country's biggest unions had been asked to bring forward next year's affiliation fees to help Labour fight an autumn election while a number of union press officers had been put on standby to help Labour's media drive in the run up to a poll.

    Brown: there will be no autumn election, NYT, 6.10.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2185312,00.html

2.45pm update

1,000 troops home by Christmas, says Brown

Tuesday October 2, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Britain will pull 1,000 troops out of Iraq by the end of the year, Gordon Brown announced during a surprise visit to Baghdad today.

The prime minister brushed off concerns the security situation would deteriorate, predicting that Iraqi forces could take control of Basra province within the next two months.

Mr Brown said the UK force in Basra would be cut from 5,500 to 4,500, meaning 1,000 troops were likely to be "home by Christmas".

However, the departure of 500 of these forces had already been announced last month.

The news - clearly timed to coincide with the third day of the Conservative party conference - further heightened speculation that Mr Brown will call a November election.

Any declarations of further troop reductions had been expected to be made in the prime minister's Commons statement on the future of the British mission in Basra next week.

The shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, who made his own set piece speech to the Tory conference today, called Mr Brown's Baghdad visit a "photo opportunity" and "cynicism".

However, the Conservative leader, David Cameron, gave the troops announcement a guarded welcome.

"If it is now possible to hand over progressively to the Iraqi army and to bring more of our troops home, then he [Mr Brown] will certainly have my support," he said.

Speaking on his first visit to Iraq since becoming prime minister, Mr Brown said he believed the 30,000 Iraqi security forces in the south were capable of taking over from the British in Basra province.

"What we propose to do over these next few months is to move from a situation where we have a combat role to an overwatch role," he said following a meeting with Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki.

Mr Brown said that this would involve the present British force of 5,500 being cut to 4,500. "Hopefully they will be home by Christmas," he added.

The prime minister refused to comment on suggestions that he was preparing to call a general election next month. "The first thing on my mind today is the security of our armed forces," he said.

"I am very proud of what our armed forces are achieving here. I believe they have acted with great courage, professionalism and bravery."

Mr Maliki said Iraqi authorities were "prepared to take over security of Basra within two months".

Mr Brown also announced plans for a new investment agency and development fund for Basra to speed up economic regeneration, urging Iraq's political parties to redouble their efforts to achieve reconciliation.

He later travelled to Basra airport, the British base, where he was expected to be given a warm reception after announcing the troop reduction.

UK troops are stationed at the airport after pulling out of Basra palace, their last base in the city itself, last month. On September 8, the ministry of defence announced that troop levels would be cut by 500.

It is expected, however, that a UK force will remain at the airport on "tactical overwatch", ready to help the Iraqi security forces if they run into any difficulties they cannot deal with alone.

Basra will be the last of four southern provinces handed over to Iraqi control by the UK. In August, the governor of Muthana province - the first to be handed back, in July 2006 - was assassinated in a bomb attack.

The MoD has said rocket and mortar attacks on the Basra airport base had fallen sharply in the last month, with only a few attempted strikes.

However, some Iraqis have argued that violence in Basra itself is on the increase.

"The withdrawal of the British forces has had a negative effect on security in the city," Karim al-Miahi, the head of the Basra security committee and a member of the provincial council, said.

"Iraqi forces still are not able to control the situation, which has deteriorated over the past three weeks."

Britain's consul general in Basra, Richard Jones, told the BBC that most local people were fearful about the future, adding that the local police had been infiltrated by hardline Shia militias.

    1,000 troops home by Christmas, says Brown, G, 2.10.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2181755,00.html

4.45pm update

Brown: I will stand up for schools and hospitals

Monday September 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Deborah Summers, politics editor

Gordon Brown set out his vision for a new era of "personalised" public services today as he attempted to stamp his mark on the party.

The prime minister used his first conference speech as party leader to promise "a new direction" on health, education and crime.

But despite much speculation, Mr Brown made no mention of whether he would call a snap general election, and no mention of the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats.

Instead, the hour-long speech, praised by union leaders as one of the most powerful given by a Labour leader for years, set out Mr Brown's priorities for the second phase of New Labour.

Under his proposals, every adult will be entitled to a regular checkup on the national health service, every suspected breast cancer case will be treated as urgent and colon cancer screening will be extended to people in their 70s.

Mr Brown said he wanted an NHS that was "personal" to each patient.

He added: "Following the review by Professor Darzi, my aim for the next stage of an NHS personal to you: for every adult a regular checkup on the NHS."

Mr Brown said that this year paid maternity leave would be raised from six months to nine months, and would eventually rise to 12 months. And he pledged to make reform of the House of Lords a manifesto commitment.

"We will in our manifesto commit to introduce the principle of elections for the second chamber," he said.

On education, the prime minister also promised a more personalised service.

"Because I want every child to be a reader, every child to be able to count, we have decided that one-to-one tuition will be there in our schools... for 300,000 children in English and 300,000 in maths."

Pledging to help all children make the most of their talents, Mr Brown said: "For every secondary pupil a personal tutor throughout their school years - and starting with 600,000 pupils, small group tuition."

He went on: "And as we expand specialist, trust and academy schools it's also time to make the biggest change in education in decades, a 10-year children's plan to make our schools, colleges and universities world class."

Mr Brown promised new one-to-one support, led by the voluntary sector, for families and teenagers in trouble, and to continue efforts to abolish child poverty.

On crime, the prime minister said local police would be encouraged to use new powers to confiscate drugs profits.

And unclaimed assets in dormant bank accounts would be used to build new youth centres.

"We will invest over £670m so that in every community there are places for young people to go."

To prevent addiction, drug education and treatment programmes would be expanded to send a clear message that drugs are never going to be decriminalised.

By April 7 next year, every community will have its own neighbourhood policing team.

"I can announce that we will provide handheld computers - 1,000 now, by next year 10,000 right across the country - cutting paper work so that officers can log crimes on the spot, stay on the beat and not waste time returning to the station to fill out forms," he said.

On binge drinking, Mr Brown said shops that repeatedly sell alcohol to those who are under age would have their licences revoked.

Mr Brown said all of the challenges the government faces can only be met by listening to and involving the British people.

Promising more change, Mr Brown said the executive would be made more accountable.

"That's why parliament will make the final decisions about peace and war," he said.

Mr Brown pledged to strengthen people's liberties, to uphold the freedom of speech, freedom of information and freedom to protest.

"Perhaps the biggest challenge for the new politics is to show how we as a community can join together to safeguard the environment, to turn the silent, rising tide of global warming."

Mr Brown said he wanted Britain to lead in carbon-free vehicles, carbon-free homes and carbon-free industry.

"And I want the new green technologies of the future to be the source of British jobs in British businesses."

Mr Brown paid tribute to Tony Blair's efforts in bringing about peace in Northern Ireland and well as the "debt of gratitude" owed by the party to another former leader, Neil Kinnock.

The prime minister added: "This is my pledge to the British people:

"I will not let you down. I will stand up for our schools and our hospitals. I will stand up for British values. I will stand up for a strong Britain. And I will always stand up for you."

Reaction from union officials and delegates was overwhelmingly positive. Some believed it would heighten speculation that a general election could be called as early as October 25.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, said the speech showed that Mr Brown was a man of "decency and integrity."

He added: "He demonstrated he is in touch with ordinary working men and women and recognised that their main concerns are education, housing, crime and the NHS.

"It is the most Labour speech we have heard for a decade."

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, said: "It was an extremely strong, powerful speech. It was good to hear him praise the national minimum wage and other issues which the trade unions have been pressing for.

"But I still think there needs to be some signs that he is listening as well."

Michael Leahy, general secretary of Community, said: "Gordon Brown showed he is the best of British and is more than good enough to see off David Cameron's bull.

"Gordon Brown is in touch with the problems and concerns that British people face every day - he is in touch because he shares their values and aspirations."

Save The Children said the speech gave a strong indication that an extra £1bn will be announced later in the year to help cut child poverty.

    Brown: I will stand up for schools and hospitals, G, 24.9.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour2007/story/0,,2176174,00.html

The politics of a bank run

Labour's moment of peril

Sep 20th 2007
From The Economist print edition

Gordon Brown may still suffer from a week of financial and political panic

SINCE Labour swept into power in 1997, there has been only one brief moment when the government looked really vulnerable. That was when road hauliers blockaded refineries in the autumn of 2000 and the nation seemed about to grind to a halt. But this week's run on Northern Rock has been just as perilous.

As so often in modern politics, it was the pictures that shocked. Britain had not experienced a bank run since Victorian times; it had avoided the bank failures that blighted the American and German economies in the early 1930s. Yet that did not stop long lines from forming outside the branches of Northern Rock once it became known that Britain's fifth-largest mortgage lender, unable to raise the short-term cash it needed from the gummed-up money markets, had requested emergency help from the Bank of England.

The bank run was unexpected and perplexing, since by then Northern Rock could rely on the Bank for support. But the rush to withdraw money was not as irrational as it looked. Many in the queues knew the limits of Britain's niggardly deposit-compensation arrangements.

These offer full cover to a depositor with any one bank for the first £2,000 ($4,000) and then 90% of the next £33,000. The protection is less generous than that in America, where deposits are fully protected up to $100,000 under a federal scheme created in 1933. Furthermore, American depositors get their money back within days whereas compensation in Britain may take up to six months.

As the run on Northern Rock persisted, there was a growing danger that the public might lose confidence in other banks. Stopping the run became imperative. On September 17th Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the exchequer, played the taxpayers' card: he guaranteed all the existing deposits in the bank for as long as the financial system remained in turmoil.

That did the trick. The queues disappeared. The financial panic was over. So, too, was the political panic that had gripped Gordon Brown and his ministers as the bank run persisted. In a further fillip for Mr Brown, a poll taken by Populus on September 17th indicated that the public was more inclined to blame risky mortgage-lending in America than the government in Britain for Northern Rock's woes. Another survey suggested that Labour's lead over the Conservatives had widened.

Mr Brown is not yet off the hook, however, for his reputation rests on being good at running the economy. His much-touted master stroke when he first became chancellor was giving the Bank of England independence to set interest rates, which helped keep inflation low and economic growth stable. But part of the deal was that the Bank stopped supervising banks.

Now Mr Brown will face awkward questions about how a bank run occurred on his watch, when it was he who designed the regulatory arrangements. And the government now has the difficult task of trying to limit Mr Darling's guarantee, which is supposed to apply only during the current exceptional circumstances.

But it is the longer-term economic impact of the bank run that could prove most damaging to Mr Brown. There have been good solid reasons why the economy has done well in the past decade, notably a labour market that has remained flexible and an increasing openness to immigration. But the long expansion has also had a flakier side. In particular, consumer spending has been sustained by rising borrowing backed by the long house-price boom.

Now lenders will become more reluctant to lend, another blow for a housing market that is looking ever more vulnerable. This week Alan Greenspan, a former chairman of America's central bank, suggested that Britain was more exposed to the credit crunch than America because a higher proportion of its mortgage borrowers had taken out loans at variable rates. What's more, British households are more indebted, in relation to their disposable income, than Americans are.

The damage that a flagging housing market can inflict was made clear in 2005, when stalling house prices prompted a slowdown in consumer spending and a slackening in GDP growth. Both have recovered since then, but house prices have become even more unaffordable and consumers yet more indebted.

While Mr Brown disappeared from sight (an old trick), Conservatives and Liberal Democrats chastised him for permitting these structural weaknesses to emerge. David Cameron, the Tory leader, warned that “an economy built on debt puts economic stability at risk”. Vince Cable, the Lib Dems' Treasury spokesman, said that he himself had warned of a looming debt crisis four years ago.

So far the public seems to have turned a deaf ear to these warnings. Mr Cameron's attempt to link the troubles at Northern Rock with Labour's record on debt may even have backfired by appearing opportunistic. But the message could get traction if the economy deteriorates or would-be home-buyers find it notably harder to borrow money.

Lower official interest rates are almost certainly on the way. Encouraging inflation figures—consumer-price inflation dropped a bit further below the government's 2.0% target in August—will help make the case for a cut in the base rate from 5.75% later this year. But it may not be enough to stop a wrenching slowdown after the financial shocks that have battered the economy. Mr Brown appears to have escaped this week's events unscathed, though his room for manoeuvre in calling the next election has been reduced. He is likely to pay a heavier political price in the months to come.

    Labour's moment of peril, E, 20.9.2007,
    http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9833550

Brown defends economic policy

Tue Sep 18, 2007
5:44pm BST
Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Everything is being done to maintain the stability of the British economy after a bank crisis, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday.

"What I want to assure people of is that everything that can be done will be done -- and is being done -- to maintain the stability of the economy," Brown told the BBC after a government promise to guarantee deposits at Northern Rock bank appeared to ease a run on the bank.

"We are an economy that will continue to grow and continue to create jobs and continue to have low inflation and low interest rates and everything that has been put in place ... is designed to ensure that," he said.

Brown argued that Northern Rock's problems were the result of international events that were "bound to have an effect on every industrial country", but he said the British economy was strong enough to deal with them.

"This is a set of financial problems that have happened in America, spread to Germany and Europe and now we're seeing some instances of that in Northern Rock in the UK," he said.

"But we are an economy that has taken the measures that have been necessary to keep a stable economy, so inflation is coming down, and at the same time we could embrace regulatory measures to ensure that when incidents like this happen they are properly dealt with," said Brown, who was attending a discussion on the future of the health service in Birmingham.

    Brown defends economic policy, R, 18.9.2007,
    http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL1875060920070918