Brown's iron grip broken by Milburn

Anthony Butcher · 22-11-2004, 02:16 AM

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/poli...?id=1341652004

Quote:

ALAN Milburn has secured Tony Blair’s backing for an ambitious bid to break Gordon Brown’s iron grip on the government’s economic policies.

The Scotsman has learned that the Prime Minister has ordered the creation of a powerful new cabinet committee, to be chaired by Mr Milburn, that will give the arch-moderniser a base for a challenge to the Chancellor’s control over pensions and savings policy.

The issue is set to be one of the defining battlegrounds for politics in the years to come, as well as a potential trial of strength between supporters of Mr Blair and Mr Brown.

Mr Milburn believes that the government must do more to encourage people to save and achieve what he calls an "ownership society" where as many people as possible own assets including houses and investments including pensions.

That may put him on a collision course with the Chancellor, whose critics accuse him of having done too little to encourage saving, particularly through tax levies that effectively take money away from pension funds.

Mr Brown and Mr Milburn are seen as potential rivals to succeed Mr Blair when he steps down, and the two men have distinctly different political styles. Mr Milburn prides himself on pushing Labour on to ever-more radical policy ideas, an approach Mr Brown’s allies deride as a meaningless "permanent revolution".

mkpdavies · 22-11-2004, 02:26 AM

Sounds like Blair is setting his dogs of war in action now, to make sure one of his lackeys take over the helm, rather than Brown in the next year or so.

Makes no difference though, has whoever it is in charge of the Labour party will hand over the keys to our country to the EU within a decade. They have to be stopped!

22-11-2004, 02:26 AM	#2 (permalink)
mkpdavies Uber Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Woking Posts: 30,604	Sounds like Blair is setting his dogs of war in action now, to make sure one of his lackeys take over the helm, rather than Brown in the next year or so. Makes no difference though, has whoever it is in charge of the Labour party will hand over the keys to our country to the EU within a decade. They have to be stopped! __________________ http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/ http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/ http://lpuk.org My ignore list Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

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