Mr. Brown's Vision - can we catch it?

In an effort to reduce the criticism of the shambles of the on-off autumn election, Gordon Brown said he would carry on and present his New Vision for Britain. What exactly is this vision?

Can we judge from his leaden conference speech? Hardly, as the vast majority was the usual re-heating of old statistics and statements. The list following is a selection of some of them, with year they were first floated by him or Tony Blair, and how many times since they have been aired.

- Hospital matrons – 2000 – twice before

- Cancer screening and fast-track treatment - 2000

- 12 months maternity leave 2004 – six times

- Full employment - 2003 – three times

- Support for teachers over expulsion – 1994 - at least three times

- Clear pathway into skilled work for all school leavers – virtually annually since 1998

- British jobs for British workers – 2006 – three times

- Child support agency – 1999 – four times since, twice in 2007

There were many others which had been mentioned at least once before. In all honesty it was a struggle to find anything new and significant. There did not seem much new vision in what was seen by many as a lack-lustre speech. The Times on July 8^th, 2007, talked of Brown’s brain and hand not being always connected – there was already plenty of sign of him talking, but not acting, of having good intentions but not implementing them. Is this another sign of his dithering?

Is there a clue in George Osborne’s reaction to Darling’s Financial Statement ( - really yet another campaigning speech to restore the polls?)? The taunt was that the Tories were producing the new ideas and vision, were in control of debates, and Labour merely following. If this is so, the new vision does not seem to have been worked out yet.

The suspicion must be that the new vision will be the same old approach – talking about devolving power and control, and giving more choice, but action still following as the same old top-down, target-driven, lever pulling centralised control, with Gordon Brown unable to give up personal control over anything.

In the end, of course, his talk of a new vision, may just be his way of trying to explain away the on-off election. He has no vision, and is inflexible. Or could it be that this is yet another New Labour sound-bite, like “Third Way”, or NEW Labour itself, - a peg to hang policies on or a button to press?

posted by STM