Columnists - Hasan Suroor;Political fortunes in time of recession

With Britain slipping deeper and deeper into recession in what is turning out to be the country’s worst economic crisis in more than 30 years, you’d expect Prime Minister Gordon Brown to be chewing his nails in exasperation. But, on the contrary, he never looked more cheerful than he does these days; and the man who had forgotten how to smile after a string of crises in the summer that nearly cost him his job is now seldom seen without a broad grin.

Mr. Brown, famously glum and lacking a sense of humour, has even taken to cracking jokes in public (when, during a press conference, a journalist’s mobile went off he asked, tongue-in-cheek if it was about another bank collapsing somewhere) as he basks in the glory of the praise he has won, even from hard-to-please pundits including Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Paul Krug, for his handling of the economic crisis.

Gone are the days when Mr. Brown, struggling in opinion polls and mocked by his own colleagues, was routinely described as Britain’s most unpopular prime minister of modern times and there was persistent speculation about his future with senior Cabinet ministers raising questions about his leadership. There was even talk of a “plot,” starring no less a person than Foreign Secretary David Miliband, to oust him.

Suddenly, Mr. Brown’s ratings are up, almost back to the level when he took over from Tony Blair in June 2007 amid visions of a new dawn, and the erstwhile alleged plotters are lining up dutifully to swear their loyalty. From the depths of unpopularity, he has emerged as the “safest pair of hands” to see the country through the present crisis.

But is it really all down to his crisis-management skills?

If you read the small print, you’d notice that Mr. Brown’s recovery really started about the time he brought Peter Mandelson, his one-time foe, back into the government some seven years after he was forced to resign over allegations that he tried to fast-track the controversial Indian businessman S.P. Hinduja’s application for British citizenship. Given the long history of mutual hostility (there was a time when the two could not bear to be in the same room together), Mr. Brown’s decision to embrace Mr. Mandelson (now Lord Mandelson) raised eyebrows. Lord Mandelson claims he himself was very surprised when he was invited to join the government.

But there was a method in Mr. Brown’s apparent madness. Remember that the alleged “plot” to remove him was masterminded by Blair loyalists, and Lord Mandelson is an uber-Blairite, if there ever was one. So, Mr. Brown reckoned that by getting the Blairites’ ringleader on board he might be able to neutralise the threat from them. The gamble appears to have paid off — at least for now — and Mr. Brown has been living happily ever since.

While the Prime Minister enjoys his new-found popularity, for ordinary Britons reeling under recession — with pounds in a free fall and millions facing job losses — there’s little to cheer about as they brace themselves for a long and bleak winter.

Meanwhile, if a combination of skilful crisis-management and some smart political footwork has helped revive Mr. Brown’s fortunes, on the other side of the divide, an incoherent response to the economic crisis, compounded by some very clumsy political moves, has dealt a blow to the reputation of Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, a rising Tory star who if the party won the next general election would be running the Treasury. Barely had the storm over his links with a controversial Russian tycoon subsided when he was hit by another blazing row — this time over his “warning” that Mr. Brown’s policies could lead to a “run on the Pound.”

His remarks, in an interview to The Times, were seized by the Labour Party to accuse him of “talking down” the Pound in breach of a convention that politicians do not say anything that might cause a currency collapse. His own party colleagues, including his boss David Cameron, were not amused either considering that the party was already under pressure for failing to seize the initiative over the economic crisis. Mr. Osborne’s antics fuelled scepticism about the Tories’ claim to be a government-in-waiting with opinion polls showing that a majority of voters had more faith in Labour when it came to handling the economy than in the Tories.

Until just a few weeks ago, Mr Brown and his party were in the dumps while the Cameron-Osborne duo presented themselves as the “future.” But, suddenly, it seems that the Tories would need to go back to the drawing board if they are serious about winning the next election, less than 18 months away, unless, of course, Mr. Brown does something silly again — though, on present form, that looks highly unlikely.

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..And lastly.

As the economic crisis deepens, some people have apparently started to cut down on even things like having a hair cut in order to save money for more pressing needs!

“There was one day last week when I only had one customer. It’s the worst I’ve seen in 40 years of hairdressing. People are even holding back from having their hair cut. Everyone’s feeling the pinch. There just isn’t the money to round,” Trevor Clark, a barber, told one newspaper in a week when on one single day 10,000 jobs were lost in Britain amid reports that unemployment is likely to touch the two million mark by Christmas.