Now that he’s gone

The Economist: Now that he's gone

Gordon Brown becomes prime minister just as David Cameron, the first electable Conservative candidate in a decade, is on the back foot. That luck won't last.

NOTHING in Tony Blair's decade as prime minister so became him as the leaving of it. His last session at the despatch box on June 27th reminded the House of Commons and the country just what they have loved and hated about him for so long. On poignant display were the self-deprecating humour, the deliberate spontaneity, the appeal to noble sentiments, the refusal to find serious fault with his own performance. This was a leader who inspired, moved and disappointed in spades. The normally partisan Commons rose as one and applauded him as he left the chamber, damp-eyed.

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Mr Brown [Labour] promises fresh policies and a new, more inclusive style of government—a curious pledge for a man who played a crucial role in the last one, and was famed as a closed and clannish operator. Mr Cameron [Conservative], who is trying to wrench his recalcitrant party from the unelectable right field towards the centre, promises to be more Blairite than Mr Blair, to say nothing of Mr Brown. Mr Cameron is betting that under Mr Brown Labour will lurch to the left; Mr Brown is hoping that Mr Cameron's Conservatives will collapse under the weight of their internal disunity.

Thanks to coincidental Tory disarray as well as to a “Brown bounce”, Labour no longer trails the Tories badly in the polls: Mr Brown and Mr Cameron are running neck-and-neck (see chart). There is implausible but exciting talk that the new prime minister will call a snap election. Politics in Britain is about to get intensely interesting.