Blair defends Brown...

Tony Blair has defended Gordon Brown's perceived ineptitude by stating that we were living in a 'tough time' for all world leaders in which members of the public were seeking domestic solutions to global problems, such as rising fuel and food prices.

"The problems of many political leaders are driven by global forces but people want domestic answers to them and they are not very easy to give… It's tough for everyone at the moment, for obvious reasons," he said. "The important thing is to take the right long-term decisions for the country and that, I'm sure, he (Gordon) will carry on doing so."

There's always a chance that Ol' Tony could be right, we can't really expect Brown to do something about things that are genuinely out of his hands (like nature). But is Brown's position really as bad as everybody seems to be making out, anyway? A recent article in Newsweek placed him in the pantheon of 'least unpopular world leaders' and the most recent Yougov polling results have shown that the Conservative lead over Labour has reached its lowest level in months. Perhaps things are looking up for Brown.

Health minister Ben Bradshaw said of Brown's troubles: "He's working in very difficult conditions. We've got the credit crunch, a doubling of oil prices, food prices up 40%. That's a difficult backdrop for any government," before adding, "When people start feeling the pinch and start feeling a reduction in their disposable income ... they take their anxiety out on the government."

Could it be that people are finally starting to see things from Brown's point of view?

Photo: Flickr

Written by Oli Anderson on 27 Jun 2008 4:51 PM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink