What do you think of Gordon Brown so far?

[Alexander]

As a Prime Minister.

[Kagemusha]

1. He's still somewhat stiff, but he hasn't broken anything big yet.

That's my reading of it from a distance.

[JCMach1]

2. in the process of mucking up the flood crisis

so thumbs down...

[baby_mouse]

3. How's he mucking it up? NT

[mr blur]

6. Sorry, but ths is nonsense.(nt)

[LeftishBrit]

7. Not really...

the flood crisis in Britain is worse than it needs to be, due to long-term penny-pinching and mismanagement of water resources. But Brown himself has not been doing a particularly bad job that I can see.

I haven't formed a strong impression yet. My feeling so far is the same as my earlier prediction: better than Blair, but not hugely better. But I have to say it's a relief NOT to have Phoney Tony as PM any more.

FWIW, Labour seem to be improving in the polls relative to the Tories, since Brown took over

[Selatius]

4. Brown thinks terrorism is a law enforcement issue and has abandoned the slogan "War on Terror"

He now calls it a law enforcement problem. If they want to blow up a train, then he says they should be tried for murder like anybody else who kills unlawfully.

[baby_mouse]

5. go go gadget Gordon

I'm becoming a fan...

[LeftishBrit]

8. I agree with him...

if terrorism had been treated as an international criminal issue, rather than a war, from a much earlier stage, perhaps less of a mess would have been created.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Ironically, he was one of the last Labour politicians to stop using the term

Britain stops talk of 'war on terror'


Foreign Office has asked ministers to ditch the phrase invented by Bush to avoid stirring up tensions within the Islamic world

Jason Burke
Sunday December 10, 2006
The Observer

Cabinet ministers have been told by the Foreign Office to drop the phrase 'war on terror' and other terms seen as liable to anger British Muslims and increase tensions more broadly in the Islamic world.

The shift marks a turning point in British political thinking about the strategy against extremism and underlines the growing gulf between the British and American approaches to the continuing problem of radical Islamic militancy. It comes amid increasingly evident disagreements between President George Bush and Tony Blair over policy in the Middle East.
...
Though neither Blair nor Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, has used the term 'war on terror' in a formal speech since June, President Bush continues to employ the term liberally. The American leader spoke of how he hoped that Iraq would become 'an ally in the war on terror' during a joint press briefing with Blair in Washington last Friday.
...
Not all British government figures are abiding by the advice, issued by the Foreign Office's Engaging with the Islamic World Unit. Writing in the Sun recently, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, referred to 'our police and armed forces in the front line of the war on terror'.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1968668,00.html

But Brown has always been good at re-announcing things as if they're new ...

[Subdivisions]

10. Finally someone calling it for what it is. Hope to see more

good stuff from Brown.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. It was wonderful to read that he said this. The War on Terror is Shrub's desire to

have endless war.