Two high profile leaders in Britain, the prime minister and the captain of the England cricket team, are both, to put it in the words of P G Wodehouse, knee deep in the gumbo. Prime minister Gordon Brown does not seem to know where his next good idea is going to come from and the England captain Michael Vaughan does not seem to know where his next run is coming from. Both are essentially good blokes, but as in politics so in sport, being a good bloke is not good enough.
However, Brown's problems are infinitely more seriously then those of Vaughan, for the England cricket captain at least does not face the prospect of an in-house revolt to topple him. Foreign Secretary David Miliband has made it quite clear that he does fancy Mr Brown's job and the residential accommodation at 10, Downing Street that goes with it, by writing an article in which he has laid out how Labour could beat the Conservatives in the next general election - without any mention of Gordon Brown.
What Mr Miliband has said would be chicken feed compared the undisguised broadsides that one sees in Pakistani politics. His most potent expressions of rebellion are supposed to be statements like “There's a very clear Labour vision for the future which offers change, significant change,” and “Let's stop feeling sorry for ourselves, enjoy a break and then find the confidence to make our case afresh,” or “I'm not campaigning for anything other than a successful Labour government.” Even these were tempered by statements like “ Gordon Brown is the leader of the Labour Party and he will lead us forward,” and even more unequivocally “Do I think
Leaders in Britain and perhaps most places in the world need to lead from the front, for which they need to be respected and to gain that respect, they have to be able to perform personally. |
Gordon can lead us into the next general election and win? Yes, I'm absolutely sure of this.” In the pre-Thatcher era of British politics, this may not have counted for much but during Thatcher and Blair, the concept of party loyalty was tightened up considerably and in times when the leader is under stress - which would be the under-statement of the decade to describe Gordon's Brown's condition - it is expected that everyone will put in their all behind the leader and Mr Miliband's piece is not quite seen as doing that. Mr Brown's allies have attacked Mr Miliband accusing him of egotism, misjudgment and damaging the Labour Party by setting out his vision for Labour's future and in trying to make Labour's “case afresh”, Mr Miliband has been interpreted as preparing the ground for a leadership bid. It is on such fine nuances that the hurricanes of British politics are based, for hurricane is exactly what Mr Miliband has caused.
Much of this hurricane has perhaps as much to do with what Mr Miliband is purported to have said as it is on the extent of the problems that Mr Brown faces. Again, the problems that he faces are as much his own doing - politically inept steps like doing away with the lowest tax bracket of ten per cent and raising the road tax on cars, both steps hitting the poor and least privileged - as the doings of his predecessor like the Iraq war. But sorry as one may feel for Mr Brown, one finds it difficult to escape the now almost universal conclusion that under him, Labour's chances of winning an election are not much better than England's chances of winning a Test match under Vaughan.
Leaders in Britain and perhaps most places in the world need to lead from the front, for which they need to be respected and to gain that respect, they have to be able to perform personally. In Pakistan the concept, as visible from afar at least, is slightly different. Pakistani leaders are feared more than respected, fear being considerably easier to generate than respect. The whole equation is therefore turned upside down, for it is not so much a question of what good you can do, but what harm you are capable of inflicting.
Mr Brown has tried to win some Brownie points (no pun intended) by trying to call off his allies who have been clamouring for Mr Miliband's head, although Mr Miliband has himself done little to dampen the assessment that he is gunning for Mr Brown's job. From a very stridently Pakistani point of view, perhaps the only good to have come from all this is the fact that Mr Miliband has cancelled a trip to India scheduled for the beginning of September, which is supposed to be round about the time when a drive against Mr Brown may be launched. That a drive will come sooner or later seems inevitable with latest poll figures showing that only 15 per cent of voters believe that Gordon Brown is up to the job while 65 per cent of voters say he is a liability for Labour, and 40 per cent of the view that Labour's chances in an election would improve without him.
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Meanwhile, another poll has heightened another trend now becoming common in British life - violence by young girls and women, bringing a completely new dimension to the gender equality debate. Young women are now committing more violent attacks than ever before, according to an official report. Ministry of Justice figures show the number of women arrested for "violence against the person'' in England and Wales has shot up from 78,900 in 2005/06 to 87,200 in 2006/07. This equates to 240 female arrests each day and it is the first time more women have been arrested for suspected violent crimes than for theft and handling stolen goods. The category includes offences ranging from street brawls to grievous bodily harm and murder.
The report reveals that women aged 21 and over were the age group with the biggest number arrested for violent offences with 52,800, while 23,000 women aged 10 to 17 were arrested and those aged 18 to 20 accounted for 11,200 arrests. The number of males arrested for violent crimes has also risen by more than 31,000 since 2005/06, with males aged 21 and over the greater offenders.
The report goes on to detail stop and search figures and shows that the total number of "persons found to be carrying offensive weapons or dangerous instruments'' is more than four times the figure it was in 1996/97. The total number for that year was 177 and it rose to 724 by the time figures were collected for 2006/07. Alarming as that is by British standards, compared to the Bronx or parts of Washington DC, or the south side of Chicago, these figures would perhaps amount to no more than a Saturday afternoon vicarage garden party.
