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Brown's mess turning into a Major gaffe - for The Inverness Courier
SIX months and 28 days after Gordon Brown's arrival at 10 Downing Street, he has suffered his first cabinet casualty.
Peter Hain is a decent, hard-working man and, on a personal level, I am sorry that he has resigned under such dismal circumstances. But the reality is that once the Electoral Commission referred his alleged campaign finance misdemeanours to the Metropolitan Police, there was no alternative for him.
He now wants to clear his name, and I wish him well. But if he is to succeed in that task, he will have to provide substantial answers to the questions which have clearly vexed the Electoral Commission.
Whether or not this is the end of one man's ministerial career, this affair has certainly damaged the reputation of the government.
At Westminster, the transition from Blair to Brown is starting to look increasingly like the transition from Thatcher to Major. We are witnessing government incompetence, economic turmoil and the unedifying sight of ministers clinging on to office by their fingertips.
John Major had a habit of backing colleagues in dire straits only to share in the personal embarrassment when the inevitable happened. Gordon Brown should be wary of going down that path.
To be fair, describing Peter Hain's actions as "an incompetence" was a clear indicator that the PM was distancing himself from his troubled colleague. That comment left Hain's political credibility in tatters, despite the protestations of prime ministerial confidence that followed.
For Brown, the bigger picture is that, like Major, his problems seem to bleed into one another; the economic downturn, the loss of 33million people's personal data and the Northern Rock crisis.
Events seem to have moved beyond the government's control. Just a few months after his coronation, Gordon Brown's government has already been cast in that light. Like Major's Tories, Brown's Labour is starting to look old and tired. Peter Hain's was the first resignation under the new Labour prime minister – but it is unlikely to be the last.
Trunk Link Road
LATE last year I appealed to the Scottish Government to find funding for the trunk link road ahead of the Strategic Transport Projects Review.
The response from the SNP government was not encouraging. Ministers say the road must go into the review this summer with other schemes from across Scotland, meaning funding may not be forthcoming until 2012.
When The Inverness Courier first broke the news that HiTrans did not expect work to begin until then, the SNP said things would progress much faster if they were in power.
The link for the A9, the A82 and the A96 is critical and funding must be found to get work under way.
Posted on: 29/01/2008
