91Èȱ¬

I feel Brown is just as qualified to deal with a terrorist incident as much as Blair does.

As the reality of it all is that they actually do very little as most of the work is being done by the Emergency Services and the Intelligence Services.

The Government are just told what is happening and what needs to be done.

It's possibly a fair point about Jacqui Smith, but come on, Gordon's got loads of experience of the war on terror- do you think he's been listening to his ipod every time this came up in Cabinet? Do you not think he's been discussing it with Blair? He's obviously been thinking about the risks of this for a long time, including the risks to Sarah and his own family.

And Jack Straw and Alistair Darling are both very competent and very experienced- and they will tell Brown what he needs to hear (as, I think, will Balls and Harman and Milliband). He's actually very open to criticism from people he trusts.

You're absolutely right to bring up the issue of experience, Nick. My take on Cabinet, Select committees, and the back benches is that the organisation of Parliament must acquire a system to properly balance experience with inexperience, ensuring those at the end of their careers slowly let go, and those at the beginning slowly take a grip.

As Prime Minister Brown and his cabinet get down to business, I expect the organisational framework and individual MP's development to point in the right direction. It's not too hard to grasp this basic idea. After all, it's a natural system that has its place in family and business and is a battle tested way of ensuring competence and survival.

Looking ahead, I'm hoping that government will continue to set a lead by more clearly appointing on merit, and not being afraid to replace, transfer, or demote where appropriate. This less individualist and more flexible approach can be very useful in reducing clinging on and greed. Both could be a useful dynamic in business and society.

Want a working example? Japan.

Yes, reality does seem to strike Mr. Brown at the most inappropriate of moments.

What a pitiful response from a Prime Minister! Stay vigilant?!?! For a man who's supposedly been in government for the last 10 years you really wouldn't have been able to tell!

Sorry to allude back to the poor journalism of two days ago, but a bomb that has the capacity to maim and kill innocents as they make their way to work is a real spine chilling news event. I hope that we never reach a situation in this country where the population's spines are more chilled by the comments of a private citizen departing from her husbands tied housing, than the reaility of the security threat in 21 century Britain.

Do you not think that it is likely that the bomb was deliberately timeed coincide with the appointment of Brown as prime minster.

Terrorists are perfectly capable of understanding our news cycles - as was shown with Ken Bigley and the Labour Conference.

It matters not who is in the Cabinet. This will be a golden opportunity for Gordon Brown to get the 90 day detention laws passed.

The bomb was almost certainly an early message from Islamic extremists that they hold Brown equally culpable with Blair for the Iraq disaster. Their actions are horrendous, barbaric and despicable but Blair leaving is not going to solve the Iraq problem, Afghanistan or domestic terrorism.

Are we to assume therefore that Jack Straw will step in for the PM at PMQs on occasion? Perhaps you could find out?

"Today's a reminder of the fact that though he has appointed no deputy prime minister he will be more and more dependant on the three 'grey hairs' who walked into Cabinet together yesterday - Alastair Darling, Geoff Hoon and, most of all, Jack Straw."

Come off it, Nick. Why on earth is Brown going to be dependent on these three in particular when dealing with a failed terrorist attack?! The idea that Brown is suddenly going to have to learn fast is ridiculous. As you yourself say on a regular basis, he's been at the heart of government for 10 years! You can't have it both ways.

'Gordon Brown..will have to learn very fast' Really?Where do you think he has been these past ten years?Or could it be the case you would have preffered a more melodramatic response eh Nick?

Nick, I think the comments on terrorist activity being timed to political upheaval are bang on. From a political and constitutional position if this bomb had been discovered 24 hours earlier what would the position have been?

John Reid resigned the 91Èȱ¬ Office at the same time as Mr Blair tendered his resignation. We then didn't have a 91Èȱ¬ Secretary until an appointment was made the next day. If an attack had happened in the intervening period who would have chaired Cobra? Who was running the 91Èȱ¬ Office?

Say what you like about our new 91Èȱ¬ Secretary's experience - but at least we had one when it mattered!

If the bomb attack in the gay London bar The Admiral Duncan hadn't been traced back to a white psychotic fascist, would we be tying that into 7/7 and 21/7 as well?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here, and let's not start with the the "all communities have a responsibility" just yet, Mr Mayor.

I would assume that Gordon has Tony's number as a "hotkey" on his mobile for advice in such emergencies.

I'm sure the present Government arrangement has plenty of experience in dealing with the terrorist climate that constantly surrounds us. I doubt you could have avoided picking up tips over the rocky few years since 9/11.

When it comes to UK security, I believe the cabinet and subsiduaries will act better than many other Goverments around the world to protect citizens and bring the idiots to justice.

It would have been better to give Admiral Sir Alan West to Des Browne now that the Prime Minister has made Defence a part time job share with Scotland!

I'm sure some vested interest group or organisation somewhere thought it a very good idea to remind our new PM of the need to keep his eye on the' terrorist threat'. A good old bomb threat will help keep him on his toes and the 'necessary resources' flowing in. Just in case he had other ideas about priorities.

Just being a pedant, Rob Stradling is right - if "9/11" means 11 September, not 9 November, then 21 July should be "7/21". Let's drop it - the American system just looks wrong.

Nick - London has suffered car bombs and terrorism like this for 30 years. A car bomb was going off once a month (well it felt like it) well before 9-11 and the recent fashion for middle eastern terrorism. The police and emergency services on the ground do the work. Not the suited and booted spin politicans of today. What will Brown do to help London and a car bomb? Pick up a fire extingusher?

No. More likely spend his days making law more complicated, dreaming up more ways to tax us, trying to smile and wave at Camera's to get the 'people's touch'. Fish out of water comes to mind.

Gordon was a great Chancellor. Grumpy, prudent, measured, mean and boring. Much like many accountants we all know and love.

But the underlying question is simple........ would you want an accountant running the country? Blair we will miss you.........

Anyone would think from the talk about experience that Gordon Brown had to defuse the bomb in person. What is he supposed to learn? The platitudes to utter are well enough known; the responses to the specific incident are the matter for the professionals. And if any change in domestic or foreign policy is called for, he has had time enough to think about it.

If the "lack of experience" card is being played doesn't it rather mitigate no change - ever? Since Team Cameron have had no governmental experience of modern terrorists and their ways perhaps best to stay with the limited experience of Team Brown.

We Muslims have more confidence on Brown leadership and this unsuccessful terror act is to snub this growing confidence.

Though it is early to speculate, it is apparent that the sole apparent motive is to take back the Muslim trust to the Brown government into darkness. This act is to be explored and investigated with oped mind and long hands. It should not be confined to Muslim circles only.

The government and the police are well right not to speculate without evidence, I hope the media will behave the same. That is the way, we can uproot terrorism without damaging our national cohesion. We are all in the same trouch and we have to defend our life side by side.

Car bombs in London are not news. Today's headline perhaps but nothing special, without sounding detrimental to victims of terrorist attacks.

I'm glad to see, for once, a PM prepared to recruit individuals who seem more suitable for the job in hand than some political lackey.

Favouritism can destroy business and has done tremendous harm to the Government under Mr Blair.

It is still early days, but for perhaps the first time in modern history we may for once have an effective Government and an end to childish political games.

Brown's Cabinet collection of yes-men and yes-women will be his downfall; as soon as things start to go wrong, and they will, he will bear all the blame, and that will bring him down. Hasten the day!

Whilst Ministers from outside the ranks of MPs seems to be a good idea (at least they might have some idea of what the real world is like), how is it thought they are to be accountable to Parliament - are they all to become life peers - they have not been announced as such (bar one).

I doubt that any amount of "experience" of terrorism in the cabinet would make any real difference. We should be thankfull that the real work in this area is done by highly experienced professionals in the security service and the police, not by "here today, gone tommorrow" politicians.

Would you like to take any bets on how long this current 91Èȱ¬ Secretary will last? The going rate in this government doesn't inspire much confidence. I may of course be wrong, but given her previous calling as a teacher, her vast parliamentary experience, and the huge potential for disaster in even the new, slimmed-down 91Èȱ¬ Office, I suspect the revolving doors at Queen Annes Gate will soon be spinning once again.

It would be nice, however, to have seen some recognition from this cabinet (and the one just killed off) that much of England is facing the worst disaster since WW2 with all the flooding. Will this change in any shape or form the intention to keep building on our flood plains? I doubt it. By the time the damage comes about this lot will have moved on. Not much changes in politics does it?

To #9: "Are we to assume therefore that Jack Straw will step in for the PM at PMQs on occasion? Perhaps you could find out?"

I'd imagine that this would fall to the Leader of the House. This isn't because it's Harriet Harman but rather because she would be the only one whose remit is general enough (and I seem to remember Geoff Hoon doing it as Leader of the House when Prescott and Blair were both away...)

Gordon Brown has a great deal of experience in government, without a doubt that is true, but he was only made Prime Minister a few days ago, and getting the hang of being the head representative from 2nd in command can be quite tricky.

As for the dates of the previous attacks, it's riculous that the media is using these often, trying to promote some sort of terror state, or at least inspire fear. For those unfamilar with 7/21 it was the day some nail bombs were detonated on a bus if I recall, some guys tagging along with the suicide attack, but most of them got arrested so justice was served, at least I hope so.

Surely the point about Gordon Brown not having a Gordon Brown (or Charles Clarke etc) was drawn word for word from This Week last night?

When on earth is Brown going to name his junior ministers? the suspense is killing me!!!

Re #26 I'd imagine this would fall to the Leader of the House.

Indeed. In fact historically the Prime Minister was always simultaneously Leader of the House of Commons (or Leader of the Lords, in the days when the PM was a peer).

Lloyd-George split the jobs, and appointed Bonar Law as Leader of the House, so that he could focus on winning the war (in fact L-G didn't attend the Commons for a year at one stage). After L-G the PM once again doubled as Leader of the House, and this remained the case until the second World War, when Churchill split the roles again - and they've remained separate ever since.

So the Leader of the House could be regarded as de facto Deputy Prime Minister, when a DPM isn't specifically appointed.

For this reason, I think it would be a good idea if Gordon were to name a DPM - probably Jack Straw - to avoid any confusion around Harriet Harman.

If something were to happen to Gordon - HH would automatically take over as things stand.

I'm not sure if Gordon lacking a Gordon is such a problem - I'm sure other potential rivals will develop quite quickly (Miliband most obviously).

What might be more of a problem is that he doesn't have a "Willie" - an elder, un-threatening (in the sense of not a leadership rival) advisor who's been there, done that.

A consequence of 18 years of opposition is that most of the Big Beasts of Labour governments past are now dead, and Kinnock, Hattersley et al sadly lack the experience and gravitas.

There is one person though: Denis Healey. OK, so he's 90 in August, but his experience and breadth is unparalleled. Best PM we never had.

What Brown is giving us is not a continuation of Blair politics. Its something quite different. How can he do this without a mandate from the electorate? Can we have a General Election please!

What did Blair say in his goodbye constituency speech? "Politics is the art of the impossible." Brown take heed, you simply do not have the charisma to carry it off.

The "bomb" was reportedly spotted by attending ambulance men to an ailing member of the public. Car - doors wide open and what looked like smoke. These ambulance personnel called the police and caused everything that followed.

More info needed of course but my thought was at this busy thoroughfare and most people with mobiles about their persons - why wasn't it spotted and reported before?

Someone falling ill may have saved a massive catastrophe - on such a little thing occurring may have made a tragedy becoming a scare only.

Nick,

Watching the Prime Minister on TV earlier, his mannerisms struck me as slightly odd, as if he was tranquilized. Is there something we should know?

What happened today might happen again a thousand times as this has been the experience of Iraq and I do not think that all the experience in the world could help us avoid the threat. I am very critical of the Labour government because instead of catching the bull by the horns they keep talking about a pretty useless multicultural doctrine. Instead of destroying our freedoms they should be focusing their efforts to counter the Islamic threat that lives and grows amongst us.

Well thank god Mr Brown doesn't have John Reid by his side - Reid was slowly turning this country into a police state

Ministry of Justice employees have been informed that Jack Straw has been appointed "First Secretary of State" and the most senior Minister; thus presumably DPM in all but name and stand-in for PMQs.

Nick talks of 'the plots of 7/7 and 21/7' -- could have been confusing across the pond had the days been slightly different: the Americans talk of 9/11, but the attacks did not take place on November 9.

I wonder if the scribes of the 11th century wrote of 14/10 when decribing the Norman invasion in 1066, or was London talking about 5/11 after Guy Fawkes and his gang had been rounded up after the Gunpowder Plot (of course, if Bushland had been around in those days, they would have called it 11/5).

For anyone who might suggest that spelling out the dates of historic events in numerical fashion helps us to remember when they happened should look at a recent US TV news clip in which people were asked in which month 9/ll took place: some said June, others said December, others were not sure.

Posted on 30/6 (or 6/30 for my aunt in Philadelphia)

There have been 2 major incidents - the floods & the 2 car bombs - that Brown has had time to comment upon, or at least make a public gesture that he empathises with people over them.

What have we heard? Nothing. What kind of leadership is that? It's pathetic. He was never around to back up Blair when things were going wrong - he did 'run for the hills' - and now he's in charge - he's doing the same. Have any other party leaders been to Yorkshire? - not that I know of. Surely Brown could have gained most by attending the crisis area, and people would have thought 'well he's in there, right at the heart of things, so he can see with his own eyes what needs to be done'.

The man is a disaster and we need to get him out before this labour administration destroys our human rights more, introduces ID cards, or 90 days detention, or carries on with it's messy Iraq strategy. The man's got blood on his hands.

Hi Nick, why are we not hearing or seeing any news on the 91Èȱ¬, that Labour is well ahead of the old Tories in the OPINION POLLS?

Am I correct in saying that at the moment Labour enjoys 40.4% appeal?

I have it from good source, that this is down to Cameron being booted out by this time next year and not because of new PM Brown.

Any analysis Nick?

Mr Brown should have responded to the terrorist threat; made a public appearance for this and the floods. I gather from a newsnight comment that when Blair was in power Brown ran for the hills in a crisis. All we got was a pithy and feeble statement by the the new 91Èȱ¬ Secretary. I can see that this new governemnt will prove to be weak in leadership and shall fail. The country and the labour party will indeed miss Blair for his courage and determination. But Blair has gone onto greater things by becoming a world leader. He is sure to achieve historical success.

I'm in agreement with comments made by jacob parsons (#18). My first reaction, when I heard Brown telling us we faced a 'sustained and continuous threat', was to think back to a time in the 1980s, when the IRA were waging a campaign in London (when my father, a DS at Scotland Yard, would not let me travel into central London on my own for Christmas shopping!).

All that high-tech equipment and yet it was public vigilance that averted a possible attack. Perversely, I can't help but think that this will only strengthen the call for more surveillance cameras and tighter powers for police and security services.

I, for one, will be interested to know how Brown will fare in balancing the need to preserve our security with the need to preserve civil liberties.

Why is Grabber Gordon Prime Minister anyway ?

There should have been a general election called when Blair left, because he stated during the last election that he would leave after a 'full term' in office. The phrase 'full term' surely meant that his government would be terminated at the end of his term in office - what else could he have meant ?

This baptism of fire may be just what is needed to spur Gordon Brown and his Government on to look primarily to this country and rather than parading and posing on the world stage as his predecessor did.

What is needed is a strong, positive, honest, practical and well thought out response rather than knee jerk spin designed to satiate the media.

Only time will tell ....

I'm not sure that we should be hoping that Brown will be relying on Jack Straw . He was the one who forced Ambassador Craig Murray out after Murray spoke out against the use of intelligence gained from torture by the government of Uzbekistan. We should be deeply concerned that anybody in government thinks that intelligence gained by torture is morally acceptable and operationally useful.

To #9: "Are we to assume therefore that Jack Straw will step in for the PM at PMQs on occasion? Perhaps you could find out?"

It was mentioned in passing on News 24 that Harriet Harman would be doing it.

Spot on Nick!
Gordon Brown has surrounded himself with followers - no-one to challenge or debate. The cabinet may have youth, but where is the experience of the real world? They've gone from school, to university, to politics, to Parliament, to Cabinet. We will all have to suffer as the cut their teeth on our public services.

Nick,
The reality is that all Prime Minsters have to give an identical message, from whatever party. Similarly all Opposition Leaders must support the government in crises like this. It's not new. It will only fall apart if there is any attempt at political point scoring on the part of the Government