Brown's curious speech
- 30 Jun 06, 01:05 PM
Here's about why Gordon Brown slipped a reference to Trident into his Mansion House speech.
Bear with me, as it tells you a great deal about relations at the top of this government. (I relayed this in a review of the week in full technicolour on last night's - click here if you want to watch - it's a Sex in the City pastiche starring this very blog).
You may recall that in the best (worst?) traditions of spin, the words Gordon Brown used about retaining Britain's nuclear deterrent were the same as in Labour's manifesto. Except that he added "in the long term". Reporters were told that this really meant that he was in favour of renewing or replacing Trident.
The chancellor had told his spin doctors to convey his support for updating Trident because he feared he was about to be 'out spun' - that the Blairites were about to say that only their man could be trusted to upgrade Britain's nuclear deterrent.
And the reason he did it that day?
He'd just received papers for the first cabinet committee on Trident - and that's why he slipped it in the speech in that curious way.
