Utterly predictable and depressing. Even I begin to see where Miliband was coming from on Question Time.

Nick Robinson said on Today that Turnbull thought he was speaking off the record

A very cynical view of mankind.

Lol! What a joy it's going to be when this guy takes over. Brown strikes me as a person who wants to suck every happy element of life out of people in a quest to make everyone as miserable as he is.

Could you imagine Brown doing a sketch for Comic Relief like Blair did? No, of course not.

We may as well face reality. We're going to face a real kicking in every election we have under him. Even the LibDems will probably replace Ming before the next general election and replace him with a younger, dynamic model. Shame we can't too.

Brown accused of 'ruthlessness':
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6469293.stm

Analysis: 'Ruthless, Stalinist'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6469615.stm

Spot changing: (Nick Robinson's take on his blog)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2007/03/spot_changing.html

(For those who are unware who 'Macavity' is the Guardian kindly descibes:
'Macavity is a prolifically criminal cat in TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats who always makes sure he is safely far away and with "one or two" alibis whenever his crimes are discovered.'

A rather apt description for Gordon Brown I have to say.

The cynic in me wonders who put Lord Turnbull up to this. Isn't what he describes Brown as doing what politics is actually about, i.e. achieving political progress, which does unfortunately from time to time ask for a degree of change from influential groups? But putting cynicism to one side, whether this is designed to pre-empt specific moves to bring about changes in the `machinery of government' or an unplanned eruption resulting from growing frustrations over the Blair government's style (maybe the suggestion ministers helping put together yesterday's document on public services went beyond their departmental briefs?) it does indicate issues over the policy processes. Not a very `sexy' subject, but it seems to me one of growing importance.

What to do about this genuine issue could be the biggest challenge Brown will have to deal with, particularly as despite various people's hopes or fears little will likely change in terms of political ambition. Blair's focus on `ideas' to some extent fits with the civil service's traditional view that ministers come up with issues and agendas and the civil servants go away and actually figure out what to do, which if you believe 'Yes Minister' as most seem to, normally means little if any change. Blair's (and to some extent Brown's) strategy, established in opposition, has been to a large extent to keep up with the media agenda - hence doubts from Blairites on Brown's capacity to `respond to events'. Except that few announcements got near to implementation, perhaps fortunately, but then perhaps few were expected to, so long as enough did to produce visible progress. But it seems to me voters are increasingly sceptical of this approach. And Brown has undoubtedly been slower in generating policy ideas, but also correspondingly more determined to see 'his' ideas come to fruition. And taking over leadership of the whole of government likely would stretch the more individual approach beyond its breaking point.

Of the two alternatives I am vaguely familiar with, France tends to rely on the ENA-graduate network which straddles party political divides, which perhaps fits in with many Blairites Oxford background and values.  The US on the other hand, where Brown probably has more natural sympathies, has far more political appointments of people from a variety of (normally relevant) backgrounds, usually but not always party based, in the senior departmental roles, and utilises inter-agency processes, particularly with economic and national security `advisory' councils, which to a large extent depend on the personalities involved, and at their best are very effective, but at times become meaningless talking shops. Of course both these countries are far more decentralised than the UK, with genuine sub-national autonomy in many areas of policy, never mind wider cultural, institutional and historical differences.

Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it does seem to me an indication that alongside a change in leader, and a change in personality, there are genuine changes afoot in the machinery of government more generally.