'Is Brown on the up?'

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

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Has The Economy Revived Brown?, Sky News Online by James Silver

Has the Prime Minister's performance in the financial crisis revived his flagging political fortunes? It was only a few weeks ago that his premiership appeared to be on borrowed time.

Labour rebels were circling; the airwaves were abuzz with plots. Meanwhile, the Tories rode high in the polls.

Even some of his most influential supporters in the press were calling on him to go.

"The smell of death around this government is so overpowering it seems to have anaesthetised them all," wrote The Guardian's Polly Toynbee.

But since economic turmoil swirled across the globe, Mr. Brown's party foes have fallen silent and - in the wake of his rescue package for the banks - a poll for The Sunday Times revealed that the Tories' lead has narrowed to ten points.

Tellingly, the PM's dismal press coverage has begun to improve too.

The Guardian's Jackie Ashley, who only two months ago was calling on him to quit , noted on Monday: "There is already talk of a "Falklands" election - a quick poll if Brown manages to sort out the financial crisis."

The Brown-Darling rescue package has also won the PM a rave review for his statesmanship in the Financial Times.

"Gordon Brown gave the Europeans a lesson in political leadership, when other leaders were running for cover and reverting to spin-doctoring," wrote columnist Wolfgang Munchau.

And the fulsome praise was not confined to this side of the Atlantic.

In an opinion article in The New York Times, the Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman asked whether Britain's PM had succeeded in saving the entire world's financial system?

Even the Daily Mail's city editor, Alex Brummer, felt inclined to note: "The transformation of the Brown-Darling image from the ditherers of Northern Rock...must be considered remarkable."

However, if those around Mr. Brown now expect a dramatic turnaround in the polls to follow his improved performance in the hot-seat, they should not, perhaps, hold their breath.

As the Daily Mail's political editor Ben Brogan argued on his influential blog: "Economic pain will shape the views of voters in ways we cannot yet fully know."

In other words, the public has yet to feel the effects of the biting recession, forecast by many. And when they do, the Government will inevitably shoulder the blame.

"Mr. Brown may be enjoying the sensation of being a Churchill for our times, but it probably won't save him," declared a leader in The Independent.

Or as Sky News's political editor Adam Boulton put it: "This has been a good couple of weeks from the Prime Minister - but there is still the prospect of a very difficult year or eighteen months ahead, in which many of us will feel poorer.

"In the past, under those circumstances, many of us have voted for change."

Posted by James Silver - On Tuesday, October 14, 2008

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