Gordon Brown’s happy daze

Jun 25 2008 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

ONE year on from the June day when he kissed the Queen’s hand and entered No.10, Gordon Brown sipped a celebratory Scotch whisky as he toasted his greatest triumph.

The Prime Minister chuckled to himself as he remembered how he had faced down the doubters who said he was mad and called a General Election just four months into the job.

The risks had been clear – “You will be the shortest-serving PM in history!”, the cowards had cried” – but bold Mr Brown had judged the potential rewards to be greater.

So it was that, on October 25, the nation had gone to the polls and given Labour an historic fourth term in government – and given the new PM the “mandate” he so desperately craved.

Labour’s majority was smaller – 42, instead of the 66 Mr Brown inherited from Tony Blair after the coup – but that could easily be explained away by boundary changes and was still healthy enough.

The Tories, forced to scrap their autumn conference, had entered the campaign in a state of civil war over David Cameron’s attack on grammar schools and his barmy “green” taxes – possibly on parking at out-of-town supermarkets.

They had briefly bounced back in the polls with an eye-catching plan to slash inheritance tax, but it quickly unravelled under fierce, daily scrutiny as voters worried about inevitable spending cuts to fund it.

Back in No.10, the autumn had brought uncomfortable moments for Mr Brown – missing CDs, dodgy donors and Northern Rock – but they seemed to bounce off the popular PM.

By the time an economic tsunami struck in the New Year, the turmoil in the Tory party – as traditionalists raged at the failed touchy-feely Cameron experiment – meant the Government escaped punishment.

Mr Cameron had survived – for now – but when right-winger David Davis found an excuse to quit the front-bench, all the talk was of a summer putsch to come.

Even as the Brown honeymoon was officially declared over, amid anger over the scrapping of the 10p tax rate, the Prime Minister had one, major consolation.

With an election victory in the bag, there was plenty of time to win back the public . . .

Mr Brown awoke to find he had fallen asleep at his desk – again. He rubbed his eyes and read the headlines in that day’s papers spread out before him: “Brown most unpopular PM in history”, “Most Labour voters want Brown to go”.

It had all been a dream and he had screwed up the election. Instead of “Bold Brown”, he was “Bottler Brown” and he had under two years to save himself from disaster.