January 7, 2005

WHERE IS THE LOVE?:

United by conviction, but divided by ambition (JAMES KIRKUP, 1/07/05, The Scotsman)

At a Downing Street press conference timed to clash with the Chancellor’s keynote speech on international aid in Edinburgh, Mr Blair repeatedly refused to give an assurance that Mr Brown will stay in his job should Labour win the next election.

Mr Blair’s aides have been incensed by what some see as Mr Brown’s bid to establish himself as a parallel leader for Britain and the Labour Party. Mr Brown’s allies have been playing up his leadership credentials, pointing to his tour of Britain this week and a high-profile trip to Africa next week.

The breaking point seems to have been Mr Brown’s authorship on Tuesday of a newspaper column that his friends presented as an alternative Labour manifesto.

"I think it’s absolutely essential that people believe that they’re getting a united policy front from the government," Mr Blair said when asked what impact such apparent disunity could have on Labour’s election campaign.

Driving home the point, Mr Blair repeatedly insisted that this year’s election would be "tough" for Labour, a warning to the party not to take a likely victory as license to engage in internal squabbles.


For us it would probably be similar to the President and Karl Rove having a falling out.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 7, 2005 8:08 AM
Comments

Peter Mandelson is Blair's Rove. Brown has been his competitor since John Smith died. In fact, Brown was the centrist candidate in the initial selection with Blair being more friendly to the 'true believers.'

Posted by: Bart at January 7, 2005 8:24 AM

Mandelson was only brought in from the Cold after the Brown relationship deteriorated.

Posted by: oj at January 7, 2005 8:29 AM

Mandelson was there at the very beginning. The anti-American anti-Israel left view him as Blair's Svengali.

Posted by: Bart at January 7, 2005 9:22 AM

Lots of guys were there at the beginning. Mandelson was out of favor for some time and was brought back once it no longer became possible to envision Brown carrying on Blair's legacy.

http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3916089.stm

Posted by: oj at January 7, 2005 9:30 AM

I am no expert on British politics and not sure of the status of alliances before Blair became PM, but it was reported in the Economist even at that time (1997 I believe) that Brown was a competitor to Blair. It was obvious that they were rivals more like Bush and McCain than Bush and Rove.

At the same time, they always mentioned Mandelson as a key Blair ally. The only time Mandelson was on the out was when certain scandals forced him out, and after a brief spell in the wilderness, Blair brought him back.

Brown was undoubtedly being touted as a future successor to Blair as a Labor PM, but how well do you think Blair took that? That speaks to Brown's ambitions at the experense of Blair.

I'm with Bart on this one until evidence to the contrary is provided.

Posted by: Chris Durnell at January 7, 2005 11:22 AM

Chris:

Blair was fine with it, having agreed to it:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,9061,971669,00.html

Changed his mind though.

Posted by: at January 7, 2005 12:27 PM
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