Main focus of Monday, October 8, 2007

Gordon Brown calls off elections

Following weeks of speculation, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced he won't be holding early general elections. Recent opinion polls showed Labour's lead over the Conservatives to be lower than predicted. European newspapers take a critical view of Brown's decision.

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

"If there's something the British really don't like, it's arrogance and boastfulness - and Labour is guilty of both," Wolfgang Koydl comments with reference to Gordon Brown's backtracking. "They talked of 'destroying' the opposition and 'trampling it into the dust'. And Brown, who had cast himself in the role of father of the nation transcending all party boundaries, plunged himself into the nitty-gritty of the election campaign. ... Now the opposition will pour all its scorn and mockery on Brown because he drew back from an election that the Conservatives so badly wanted. But in reality they're grateful for the delay. They know that this time they wouldn't have won; at best they would only have been able to reduce Labour's majority. But they're confident that the later the elections come, the more chance they have of winning." (08/10/2007)

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Die Presse - Austria

The newspaper's London correspondent Axel Reiserer comments on Brown's decision: "A gloomy autumn lies in store for us. The opposition reacted to Brown's retreat with the expected derision and scorn. In the eyes of the public, Brown's decision gives the impression that the 56-year-old became afraid of his challengers. ... There are those who, with Brown as their target, have revived the old nursery rhyme about 'The Grand old Duke of York' who ordered his troops to march to the top of the hill only to have them come down again without having achieved anything - and then repeated the whole procedure. Within the space of a few days Gordon Brown has plunged from his pedestal to become a laughing-stock." (08/10/2007)

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The Daily Telegraph - United Kingdom

"Mr Brown has had one of the most short-lived honeymoons in British political history," writes the daily columnist Janet Daley following British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's announcement that there would not be a fall election. "Where once he looked the embodiment of gravitas and conviction, he is now a deceitful opportunist – and not a very clever one at that. ... The resounding power of a tax-cut promise [made by conservative opposition leader David Cameron] has proved its worth so definitively that, to stay in the game now, Mr Brown needs urgently to go into plagiarism mode. The tragedy for him is that this will not undermine Mr Cameron's position – it will strengthen it. ... If Labour tries to attack the tax breaks, Mr Cameron benefits. And if it imitates them, he benefits." (08/10/2007)

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