MobileGordon Brown: stuck in the early nineties?
13:48 | Insider Research
Gordon Brown's political mindset is stuck firmly in the early nineties, in the view of the PoliticsHome Phi100 panel.
The panel, which includes MPs and peers, media commentators, party strategists, and leading political thinkers, were asked to assess the theory put forward by Daniel Finkelstein in this morning's Times that:
‘'The central ideas that make up Gordon Brown's policy, political strategy and day-to-day tactics were all developed between 1992 and 1994. He hasn't had an important idea since. Nor has he discarded an important idea since then, remaining doggedly faithful to every last one.'
Overall, seventy four per cent of the panel endorsed this view, including ninety per cent of right leaning panellists and sixty three per cent of those on the left.
Non-aligned and Lib Dem panellists also strongly supported the theory.
Time warp
A Lib Dem strategist said that the theory was ‘probably a little unfair, but not by much’.
A left-leaning thought leader said: ‘There is some truth in the charge, but put in that bald way it is unfair.’
Right leaning MPs enthusiastically backed the theory, however. One believed that the Prime Minister was now ‘trapped in a time warp’.
Another proposed an earlier date, saying: ‘he reminds me of the post 1815 French Bourbons.’