Gordon Brown: Bard of Britishness
Embargo: 1am Wednesday 25 October 2006
Gordon Brown: Bard of Britishness
A penetrating analysis of Gordon Brown’s efforts to align his
Scottish and British identity in pursuit of the UK premiership is
contained in Gordon Brown: Bard of Britishness, by the Scottish
thinker and expert on nationalism, Professor Tom Nairn, of RMIT University,
Melbourne. Nonetheless he concludes that the disintegration of the
Thatcher and Blair administrations within little more than a decade
demonstrates system failure rather problems with leadership or policy.
In the publication other authors take issue with Nairn’s analysis,
published by the Institute of Welsh Affairs. He finds that while the
notion of greater self governance for Scotland and Wales and of new
forms of democratic autonomy for England, used to be regarded as a
disastrous divorce, it is now thought of as just another evolutionary
change: “Where once the United Kingdom monopolised common sense
in contrast to the crazy sectarian passions of the periphery, today
something like the contrary prevails. The Centre has gone mad, while
‘out there’ voters shrug their shoulders and rather calmly
look for ways out.”
Nairn argues that although Margaret Thatcher’s downfall was
prompted by the Poll Tax disaster and Tony Blair’s early departure
has been caused by the Iraq war, the collapse of their two administrations
within such a short space of time heralds an underlying change in
the structure of the United Kingdom: “For both ruling parties
to succumb to Humpty-Dumptyism within a decade and a half surely points
to system-failure, rather than leadership idiosyncracy and policy
errors. Breakage and wilful fragmentation on such a large and persistent
scale questions the United Kingdom’s historical identity —
its indwelling self-image of exemplary stability and democracy. Here,
indeed, the New Labour collapse may be more significant than Thatcher’s.”
Professor Nairn’s polemical essay is accompanied by critical
responses from: the Scottish journalist Neal Ascheson; Vernon Bogdanor,
Professor of Government at Oxford; Professor Kevin Morgan, chair of
the Yes for Wales Campaign in the 1997 referendum; David
Gow, the Guardian’s European Business Editor; Leighton Andrews,
Labour AM for Rhondda; David Melding, Conservative AM for South Wales
Central; Peter Stead, Welsh cultural commentator; and Charlotte Williams,
of Keele University.
For more information contact:
John Osmond, Director, IWA 029 2066 6606 johnosmond@iwa.org.uk
Tom Nairn: 00613 9481 2936 / 00613 9925 9586
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