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Any clout in people power?
IT has been a week of desperate measures
for Gordon Brown. A week in which he
has been forced to relaunch his Government,
not only in the eyes of the electorate,
but also in the eyes of his own
jittery MPs.
On Tuesday, Mr Brown was forced into
an unprecedented emergency budget to
offset the damage caused by the 10p tax
rate fiasco.
However it is dressed up, this was a
Labour Prime Minister seen to be taking
away from the poor and giving to the comparatively
well off. He had to do something
about it and his £120 tax giveaway
to more than 20 million people was an
enormous u-turn that had to be made if he
was to retain any semblance of
credibility.
Yesterday, we saw Mr Brown bring forward
his draft Queen's Speech proposals
which hadn't been expected until July.
With a potentially crushing by-election
in Crewe and Nantwich next week, Mr
Brown needed to follow his 10p tax climbdown
with a package of enticing measures
aimed at shoring up his creaking
administration.
It is interesting that a central theme in
yesterday's proposals was "people power"
with community involvement given
greater emphasis in all the key public services:
patient satisfaction surveys influencing
hospital funding, parents being
given greater access to information about
their children's progress, chief constables
being made accountable to a directly
elected representative and councils being
forced to respond to petitions.
People power is clearly a key element in
Gordon Brown's vision for taking the
country forward.
But will it actually mean anything? Ask
the thousands of people who campaigned
to save their local post offices.
9:29am Thursday 15th May 2008
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