BRITAIN: The 'buy Blair, get Brown' anthem of many observers might be very wrong, writes Frank Millar, London Editor.
John Prescott is not conspicuously one of New Labour's leading royalists (indeed many will think he's not that conspicuously "New Labour" either). And it's certain the deputy prime minister has seldom if ever been likened to the Prince of Wales. Yet Prince Charles came to mind yesterday as Mr Prescott cast a baleful eye on "bloody" journalists determined to mar Labour's election manifesto launch with questions about the small matter of who would be Labour's next prime minister.
This was a day for serious business, the manifesto a rallying cry to Labour supporters to "embed" the "progressive consensus" to transform permanently the face of British politics and make Labour, not the Conservatives, the natural party of government.
And it must be said the difference between this affair and Monday's Conservative launch was obvious immediately upon entering London's Mermaid Theatre.
On Monday Tory leader Michael Howard (as he no longer wishes to be known) appeared alone at the podium, his "shadow" cabinet colleagues reduced to a support role in the audience. Some unkind souls wondered whether this was designed the better to impress Mr Howard's personality and leadership skills upon the country, or rather to keep the "shadows" in the shadows lest the country see what the alternative government-in- waiting actually looked like. Critics also seized on the rather thin nature of the Conservative manifesto, likening it more to a "focus group" list of gripes against the government.
Labour's was inevitably the much longer product, bursting with hundreds of commitments to take "Britain Forward Not Back". And Mr Blair had the full cabinet with him, five senior colleagues upfront to deliver the collective narrative on what Labour had done and had still to do, with the rest (including election supremo Alan Milburn) highly visible behind. Some of them could have been forgiven for wondering if the next stage of renewal might see them consigned to the back benches. The point here, of course, was that they looked like a party that intends and expects to resume government on May 6th.
The serious business of government, however, provokes serious questions. And Tony Blair can hardly have been surprised (though he still manages to look disgusted) with resumed interrogation about his political longevity. After all, he concluded yesterday's presentation with the assurance that this was to be his last election.
So along with questions about whether taxes in the form of national insurance contributions would go up, people naturally wanted to know when Mr Blair intended to stand down. One courageous journalist likened the Labour set to a television gameshow, inviting Mr Blair to nominate his government's "weakest link" before asking if perhaps it might be himself. And why was the prime minister being so "de-emphasised", what with all these joint appearances with Gordon Brown? Was it because his colleagues now thought him a liability? If the chancellor was embarrassed by this line of questioning he made a reasonably good fist of concealing it.
Yet as Tony's torment continued, there were reminders of why he and not Gordon had claimed the Labour leadership in the first place. He had made it plain, and did so again, that if elected he intended to serve "a full term". Suddenly one grew fearful for those in the commentariat who convinced themselves this time "the deal" would stick and that Gordon would be moving into Number 10 soon after polling day.
"Buy Blair, get Brown" they've been encouraging Labour doubters. But "Buy Blair, get Blair" seemed to be what Tony had in mind. What was more - and whatever about his personal position - we were cheerfully informed that Blairism in the quintessential form of New Labour would, in Margaret Thatcher's immortal words, be going on and on and on and on. "I have said this is my last election," said Mr Blair. "At the election which follows there will be a different leader. What this manifesto shows is that, when at that election this party is under new leadership, it will continue to be the modern progressive New Labour party of the past 10 years that the British people can support with confidence."
That'll be why Gordon's been looking so happy.