Heir to Blair or is it Thatcher?
- 26 Jul 07, 01:35 PM
Yesterday's SUN had which revealed that :
"WORKAHOLIC Gordon Brown has rejected Tony Blair's office in No 10 - and plumped for Maggie's old den instead. The PM has moved his desk into the first-floor office used by Mrs Thatcher during her 11-year Premiership".
This left me a little confused. That very day I had also done an interview with the prime minister. I'd met him in his office - the one where I had in the past met not Margaret Thatcher but, er, Tony Blair. We even chatted about how he'd moved the furniture about.
When I asked a Downing Street aide to clear up this confusion he replied "Ah, the prime minister has many offices" with a knowing look.
Having broadcast that story on the Today programme this morning as an example of Team Brown telling the papers what they wanted to hear I had a call to "clarify" matters. Here goes...
"Gordon's office" - the room in which he meet officials, sign papers and the like - is, indeed, Margaret Thatcher's old
study on the first floor.
"Gordon's room" - where he writes speeches with his aides, stores the usual Brown clutter and hangs out - is, indeed, Blair's old den.
