G20

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

The Tories will be thrilled if Brown starts playing the World Saver again

Patrick Wintour has an insightful article in today’s Guardian, setting out how and why Brown has dithered when it comes to deploying the c-word.  So far as the current landscape is concerned, this passage is particularly striking: “There is tension between Brown and Darling on how far the campaign can be based on Brown’s achievements in saving the world economy, and how far it must be based on visions of the future. Brown’s determination to dwell on the fact that he made the correct big decisions in the recession has been one cause of his past reluctance to address the future deficit mountain, and how to deal with it. It

Friday

Peter Hoskin

How quickly things change

Spot the difference: 5 September, 2009: Gordon Brown warns G20 countries against reining in spending, The Telegraph “Britain is resisting pressure from Germany and other Euro-currency countries who are planning to moves towards an ‘exit strategy’ that would see some of the planned anti-recessionary spending programmes being scaled back to cut rising national debts.” 18 September, 2009: Gordon Brown to call for international agreement to cut public spending, The Telegraph “Mr Brown says ‘exit strategies’ from the emergency fiscal measures that were introduced to stave off the worst excesses of the recession need to be agreed by all the leading nations. The Prime Minister will tell world leaders that a

Wednesday

James Forsyth

The FT is still the Brown ‘un

Most of Fleet Street might have abandoned Gordon Brown but judging by today’s editorial the FT, along with the Mirror, will be with Brown to the end. In its editorial today it praises Brown’s “prudent suggestions” for the G20 meeting. It goes onto say that “the G20’s aim should be to provide political cover so that governments – including the UK’s – have the room to continue running large deficits, if sustainable growth should prove to be further away than hoped.” Then, bizarrely, it goes onto say that the “prime minister faces both ways on bankers’ bonuses” as if this is a good thing. In a way, it is unsurprising

Tuesday

Daniel Korski

Sarkozy revs up Franco-German motor, leaving Britain behind

Last week, French President Sarkozy spoke to the annual gathering of his country’s ambassadors. Since he came to power, the French leader has used the annual event to welcome his countrymen back from their holidays and garner a few headlines. This year proved no different with an attack on the Iranian regime receiving the most attention. In a powerful line, the French president pointed out: “It is the same leaders in Iran who say that the nuclear programme is peaceful and that the elections were honest. Who can believe them?” He went on to say that he thought tougher sanctions would have to be discussed if Tehran does not change

Thursday

Martin Bright

Gordon Brings the International Stage to London

At the height of the internal Labour Party coup against Gordon Brown just before the last Labour Party conference even the Prime Minister’s greatest detratctors agreed that he did the international economic stuff rather well. I remember one senior Blairite heavyweight suggesting that after his removal, Brown should be allowed to occupy a new role as a roving economic ambassador. Since then, his reputation for economic competence has undergone an assault from which few would recover. But, whatever his opponents might say (and Fraser is right to say that it was largely done with smoke and mirrors), the G20 summit ended up as something of a triumph or Gordon Brown. I

Tuesday

Martin Bright

Time Changes Everything

It wasn’t so long ago that senior Labour politicians were suggesting that Gordon Brown should use the coup of the G20/Obama visit to bounce straight into an election. It seems bizarre now, but such was the confidence of the Labour Party in those early days of the economic crisis that there were close allies of the Prime Minister urging him to go to the polls this spring. Their only concern was that it might be too late. The ideal time for those urging a snap election (the second in a series of elections that never were) was February. Now, the idea that Brown will do anything but wait until the last minute seems inconceivable, but anything’s possible.