The real big idea in Gordon's speech
- 22 Jun 06, 11:46 AM
Pity the spinner and the spun to. For 24 of the 36 hours before Gordon Brown made his latest Mansion House speech ( or watch it here) I was supposed to be covering it: I had even dug my black tie out of the back of the wardrobe. Then the editors of Newsnight decided Thames Water was a less boring story than Gordon on Globalisation. But in the middle of a reed clump in the , Brent, I got a call from Gordon鈥檚 people alerting me that 鈥� like a well aimed outswinger on a humid day at Trent Bridge 鈥� the message of the great man鈥檚 speech had curved, late in its trajectory, away from globalisation and towards nuclear annihilation.
Was I aware, the 鈥渟ources close鈥�, asked me, that the nuclear issue was the 鈥渓ast of the big issues to be sorted out in the next six to eighteen months鈥�? And that this was Gordon speaking 鈥渁s himself鈥� and 鈥渙utside his remit as Chancellor鈥�?
Actually yes I was 鈥� and having heard the full speech I wish that Gordon Brown鈥檚 spinmeisters had actually stuck to the original top line, namely Britain鈥檚 role in a globalised economy, because it is on getting that right 鈥� rather than maintaining the theoretical ability to outnuke Vladimir Putin 鈥� that the UK鈥檚 future probably depends...
