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Everything I Know about the Tory Leadership Crisis I Learned from PMS Relief
By: Aidan McCaffery
It's true. You've got no reason to believe someone isn't doing their job properly until they truly mess up. If someone came into your corner of the workplace and said, "X has happened, and I'm doing Y and Z to deal with it," you'd believe them, and wonder what they felt the need to report it to you rather than just getting on with it. Unless X was a rip in the space time continuum, and Y and Z was the construction of a complex, futuristic vortex stabilizer to fix it with, in which case you'd accept it was probably worth bragging about.
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This goes someway to explain the high voter confidence in Britain's newly un-elected Prime Minister Gordon Brown. As far as I'm aware, he hasn't fixed any anomalies in the fourth dimension, but instead promised he'd do a whole load of stuff, which the public has patted him on the back for promising. This grace period is an oddity in politics. Gordon Brown hasn't even been allowed the time to put a foot wrong and already his first month in power is being dubbed Labour's 'Brown Bounce' as they storm the
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Conservative Leader David Cameron
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polls and the Conservatives go into leadership crisis meltdown over the performance of David Cameron as their front man.
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In a way the effect Brown's popularity is having on the Tories is a welcome blast from the past. I remember a time in-between Tony Blair's election to head government and the election of Michael Howard as Tory leader when the Conservatives suffered leadership crisis' like women
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Prime Minister Gordon Brown (l) and his predecessor Tony Blair
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menstruate. Every four weeks or so, the opposition party would become uncommunicative, moody and angry about their public appearance and the respective man in their lives.
No doubt they discovered some good PMS Relief around 2003 as ever since Howard took over the leadership the mood swings have been few and far between, and their one change of leadership since was actually quite dignified. I imagine they probably now feel comfortable wearing white jeans when they're on, too.
Which makes their current panic about Cameron's leadership a bit bemusing. I'm not a great fan of Cameron, and indeed am a bit soft for Brown, but any political analyst and their dog should be able to see that the 'Brown Bounce' Labour are currently experiencing is more than likely superficial. Brown's new cabinet is a nice change of scenery, but as of yet we have no reason to believe it will be New New Labour rather than Same Old New Labour. True, Brown has instigated a couple of changes of policy for Labour, but they have been so minor as to more closely resemble lavatorial U bends rather than full blown U turns. |
U.S. President George Bush delivering a speech before Congress, September 20, 2001.
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The ‘Brown Bounce’ also reminds me of that sure fire ratings winner: the reaction to domestic security. If there's a terrorist attack, a civilian kidnapping, the threat of nuclear war, all a prime minister or president has to do to seem like he's doing his job
right is say he's going to do something. He doesn't even have to specifically outline what he's going to do. George Bush's ratings were never higher than after 9/11 when he coined the term 'War on Terror.' Ex US president Jimmy Carter's ratings soared when he promised his country he'd safely return American hostages from Iran in 1979.
Tony Blair suffered a similar boost in popularity when England suffered its own Iranian hostage crisis earlier this year. It is possible Brown's bounce could be due to his instantaneous televised promise of a reaction to the attempted terrorist attacks in Scotland several weeks ago. Again, 'X has happened, and we are going to do everything in our power, including Y & Z, to deal with it.' For now, that's good enough for the British public, and that's bad news for David Cameron, who had something spectacular and quick. Anyone seen any holes in the space time continuum he can fix?
Send comments on Aidan’s column to a.f.mccaffery@gmail.com
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