When Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair a year ago, the new British prime minister came with the label: “No flash, just Gordon.”
The slogan, devised by advertising gurus Saatchi and Saatchi, was meant to reflect the relief felt by many that the Blair decade of glitz and spin would be followed by a more sober political style. However, a year on commentators agree that the slogan, aimed at making a virtue of Brown’s reputation for steadfastness and solidity, has thoroughly backfired.
“It was fatally undermined by Brown himself. On the current evidence he is simply not up to the job,” said Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, a self-confessed admirer of Brown over many years. Brown’s lack of communication skills, which many preferred to ignore in the hope that he would grow into his new role, had led to an “empathy gap” with the electorate, leading in turn to a catastrophic decline in support for the Labour Party to pre-1987 levels.
The comments have given Brown, 57, plenty to think about on his milestone anniversary on Friday. “It’s very much business as usual,” said his spokesman.
According to an ICM poll published in the Guardian this week, up to 75 percent of voters see Brown as a disappointment, saying the changeover from Blair to Brown had actually “made things worse.”
The Conservatives, who were considerably behind Labour when Brown enjoyed a brief political honeymoon last summer, are now leading Labour by more than 20 points, the largest Tory lead ever recorded by the polling institute.
Recent opinion polls show support for Labour down to 26 percent, contrasting with a surge for the Conservatives to 49 percent. A year ago, Labour’s popularity rose to 39 percent, leading the Conservatives by four points.
All analysis of what has gone wrong in Brown’s first year reverts back to “the election that never was,” Brown’s decision to abandon plans for an early general election last October after allowing speculation to run wild.
That misjudgment, analysts believe, marked Brown as a “ditherer and a bottler,” an impression that continued to be reinforced by a series of gaffes, damaging U-turns and poorly though-out decisions on taxation and other domestic policy issues.
