British Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has just announced the formation of a National Council for Democratic Renewal in a further attempt to regain the political initiative following the MPs expenses revelations. Whilst I think that such an idea is worth floating, I worry about the process. Was this discussed inside the Labour Party either by its National Policy Forum or its National Executive Committee, or even within government, by the Cabinet?
Listening to his interview on the Today Programme, the repeated use of the first person singular, I,I,I,I........will not have gone unnoticed by the listener. Personally, I don't see how this initiative can have any credibility with the electorate without a parallel process inside the Labour Party about its own democracy.
