Perhaps, Over to You, Mr Cameron …?
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1478-9302.2008.00158.x |
| Author | Richard Heffernan |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Perhaps, Over to You, Mr Cameron ... ?
Richard Heffernan
The Open University
Public intellectuals invariably fall into one of two broad categories: those who
criticise or those who support government. Since 1997 Anthony Giddens, New
Labour to his fingertips, has solidly fallen into the much rarer second category.
While never having held any official post (not even as a Labour peer), he has
produced a string of books, speeches and articles (and, one imagines, offered
much private advice) providing normative prescription as to what the Labour
government should do.In giving such advice, always making his pro-Labour case
from within the New Labour redoubt,Giddens has loyally and persistently, often
brilliantly,sought politely to radicalise Blairite Labour. His latest book,Over toYou,
Mr Brown (Giddens, 2007),again offers a number of normative recommendations
regarding how the Brown-led post-Blair Labour party should refurbish the New
Labour brand (principally, it must be said,by being more New Labour). Certain
suggestions, particularly in terms of egalitarianism, cosmopolitanism and taxation,
may prove too radical for the ‘safety first’ instincts of the new prime minister;
others may seem too Blairite for the Brownite inheritors of the New Labour
project. In that regard, given the Blair–Brown divide,the phenomenon known in
Whitehall as the TB-GBees, credit must be given to the Polity editor who
searched far and wide to uncover the rare photograph of Gordon Brown smiling
at Tony Blair which adorns the cover of this book.
Brown’s New Labour Legacy
Gordon Brown, perhaps even more than Tony Blair, is instinctively drawn to
centralised, top-down government. One imagines that, given his record, he will
want, whenever possible, to micro-manage government policy in line with his
own preferences. Of course, Blair, at his peak, was by far the most predominant
prime minister of the modern era and Brown, being unable to lay claim to Blair’s
advantages, not least electoral popularity, will not rival his predecessor’s intra-
governmental predominance. Nonetheless Brown, unlike Blair, does not have a
Gordon Brown to contend with.His cabinet presently contains no ser ious rival,
peopled as it is by Brown loyalists and those ex-Blairites who, politely to
paraphrase Lyndon Johnson, seem fir mly to be in Brown’s pocket. Hither to
Giddens has been closer to Blair than Brown and so it remains to be seen
if the former London School of Economics (LSE) Director will enjoy the same
clout with the new prime minister. One notes, however, that two of the three
POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW: 2008 VOL 6, 285–296
© 2008The Author.Jour nal compilation © 2008 Political StudiesAssociation
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