See-saw politics by Murdoch's guru
Peter Kenyon Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 02:09:25 PM GMT 
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Irwin Stelzer writing in today's Daily Telegraph concludes:
So when Gordon Brown's advisers grope for ways of using the two years left before a general election to extricate the Government from its difficulties, they have to ask the right question. What were the tipping points that brought us low, and how can we retreat from them in a significant way? As the £2.7 billion tax fix, class warfare in Crewe and the PM's pledges to get on with the job demonstrate, tinkering won't matter.
Only a drastic rollback of the frontiers of the state - on taxes, spending and intrusive regulation - can set in motion a pull-back from the tipping points that Labour has arrived at.
It is not a U-turn of which this Prime Minister is capable.
I beg to differ. In two recent speeches Brown has spoken about the power of communication and the wisdom of the crowd. Late 20th century British politics was dominated by spin. The latest developments in communication technology have condemned that approach to influence public opinion to the dustbin of history. Labour Party members have already shown the way with policy-making. It's very early days. But it is the future.
Brown's destiny and that of the Labour Party are not dependent on a U-turn. They depend on unleashing our capacity to think for ourselves and organise collectively to win electoral support, and shape policy through established institutions; namely, political parties.
Brown has everything to play for. Personally, I just wish he would stop making political life so difficult both for himself, his ministers, his MPs and party members and supporters with delusions of populism, which Rupert Murdoch's own guru recognises are past the point of no return.
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