Is Brown stuck in 1992?

Urban Cycling event
Originally uploaded by matsimpsk

Daniel Finkelstein has again written a really interesting article.

This time he’s come up with this brilliant theory:

I want to advance my 1992 theory of Gordon Brown and the Brownites.

Here it is. The central ideas that make up Gordon Brown’s policy, political strategy and day-to-day tactics were all developed between 1992 and 1994. He hasn’t had an important idea since. Nor has he discarded an important idea since then, remaining doggedly faithful to every last one. And these notions, the bedrock of everything he does, were developed as a response to the two big political events of 1992 – the victory of Bill Clinton and, more centrally, the defeat of Neil Kinnock by John Major. There you have it – my 1992 theory.

It might be a little unfair to Brown, but I think this theory has a lot going for it. Labour were just so traumatised in the 1990s that it will have been really difficult to move away from mentally.