By Anna Tomforde Jun 27, 2008, 2:10 GMT
London - When Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair a year ago, the new British Prime Minister came with the label: 'No flash, just Gordon.'
The slogan, devised by advertising gurus Saatchi and Saatchi, was meant to reflect the relief felt by many that the Blair decade of glitz and spin would be followed by a more sober political style.
However, a year on commentators agree that the slogan, aimed at making a virtue of Brown's reputation for steadfastness and solidity, has thoroughly backfired.
'It was fatally undermined by Brown himself. On the current evidence he is simply not up to the job,' said Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, a self-confessed admirer of Brown over many years.
Brown's lack of communication skills, which many preferred to ignore in the hope that he would grow into his new role, had led to an 'empathy gap' with the electorate, leading in turn to a catastrophic decline in support for the Labour Party to pre-1987 levels.
'We all thought he'd have this big box of fireworks that he'd open and we'd go 'wow'. But there was nothing,' an unnamed cabinet minister told the Times.
The comments have given Brown, 57, plenty to think about on his milestone anniversary on Friday. 'It's very much business as usual,' said his spokesman.
According to an ICM poll published in the Guardian this week, up to 75 per cent of voters see Brown as a disappointment, saying the changeover from Blair to Brown had actually 'made things worse.'
The Conservatives, who were considerably behind Labour when Brown enjoyed a brief political honeymoon last summer, are now leading Labour by more than 20 points, the largest Tory lead ever recorded by the polling institute.
Recent opinion polls show support for Labour down to 26 per cent, contrasting with a surge for the Conservatives to 49 per cent. A year ago, Labour's popularity rose to 39 per cent, leading the Conservatives by four points.
All analysis of what has gone wrong in Brown's first year reverts back to 'the election that never was,' Brown's decision to abandon plans for an early general election last October after allowing speculation to run wild.
That misjudgement, analysts believe, marked Brown as a 'ditherer and a bottler,' an impression that continued to be reinforced by a series of gaffes, damaging U-turns and poorly though-out decisions on taxation and other domestic policy issues.
The faux-pas included Brown's late appearance at the signing ceremony for the European Reform Treaty in Lisbon last December, which was interpreted as a snub by fellow Europeans.
Brown's premature announcement of troop withdrawals from Iraq this spring, which had to be put on ice after fresh violence flared, have added to the perception of him as a 'weak leader' and fuelled disappointment among Labour voters.
But things went seriously wrong for Brown when economic storm clouds began to gather in the US last summer, analysts believe.
When Britain's mortgage lender Northern Rock faced collapse over dodgy mortgage dealings in the wake of the US subprime crisis, the Labour government was put in the embarrassing position of having to witness the first run on a British bank in 140 years.
After months of drama and indecision, and public investment on an unprecedented scale, Northern Rock was eventually nationalized earlier this year. Brown has sought to divert from the domestic failings by turning his attention to foreign policy issues such as poverty, climate change and rising food and fuel prices.
But analysts predict that it will be the issues at home, most prominently the economy, that will continue to test his leadership.
As dinner party talk now regularly, and openly, turns to the post- Brown era, there are few who believe that the 'aura of newness and competence' can be regained.
But there are also those who, maybe fairly, make the point that it is wrong to blame Brown for all of Labour's woes.
'After more than a decade in power, with the global economy turning sour, it is questionable whether anyone could have achieved 'renewal' for Labour,' the Observer newspaper recently commented.
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