Only with some distance from the events of Tuesday has it really dawned on me - Gordon Brown has no new ideas of his own and absolutely no new direction for the country. Tuesday's Comprehensive Spending Review should have been the opportunity to set out the strategic vision for the rest of his premiership (or at least for the next 5 years) - it being the result of a couple of years work in HMT and 10 years or brooding. Instead the main focus appeared to be on stealing Conservatives ideas on inheritance tax outlined only days before. The rest of it was just tinkering at the edges.
At the end of his first 100 days it looks like the Prime Minister has run out of steam. Labour look to be on catch-up for the rest of this Parliament with the Conservative Party setting the agenda.
The non-election fiasco was a mistake for Brown, but he would have recovered. In retrospect I think Tuesday's non-event CSR will be marked as the beginning of the end of his premiership.
