Centerfield

Gordon Brown - Blogging

Gordon Brown is the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, replacing Tony Blair. So, what sort of man is he? Well, I've been reading a ton of Economist articles about him, and thought I'd fill the gap in US coverage about it a bit.

Blair and Brown were comtemporary leaders of the Labour Third Way movement, in effect postsocialist Labour. They formed a team to spread their form of Labour politics and reach office as PM. Basically, Blair was the beauty and Brown the brains. That can be oversold, though, because Blair certainly isn't stupid, and Brown has won election and frequent reelection to a Parliamentary seat.

Brown showed up on the news a few years ago because he's been decidedly jealous for Blair's job. He says he and Blair had an agreement to swap places as PM on intervening terms. Blair can't seem to remember any such agreement.

Also, there are some unhappy ex-employees of his Treasury Department who grumble about him to the media alot, but I think ex-employees (unless there are hordes of them, in which case you hafta start wondering) are only slightly more reliable character witnesses than ex-wives.

My guess is that his political rule will be comparable to our Bush I. I think that, after some initial discomfort, he'll politic fine and win one election, govern corruptly with the already-corrupted Blair administration personnel (which includes himself), and be kicked out after that.

I think he'll continue the antiprivacy and increasingly Mommy-like reach of the state before that fall. On the other hand, because he's a bigger thinker, there's a good chance he'll clean up at least one raw edge in Blair's British constitutional reform.