Daily Mail dubs Gordon Brown a first-rate Chancellor

And later in the same comment piece it says "it could be that Mr Cameron is wise to avoid committing to tax cuts". What’s gone wrong with the world?

I had to check that I was really reading their web site when I read the first two paragraphs: "Even Gordon Brown's sternest critics must admit that, by and large, he has done a first-rate job as Chancellor. Under his watch, there have been no sudden devaluations of the currency, no Winters of Discontent or Black Wednesdays - just nine years of steady growth...".

The tone is pretty positive throughout the piece although there are some buts. The three people who had commented are clearly not up to speed with our changing world...

No doubt my left leaning friends will use this as further proof that new Labour has sold out and abandoned all the party’s traditions. But as I explain elsewhere in this blog, Gordon Brown has managed to allow the government to do more genuine socialist good (sometimes by stealth) than any previous chancellor has.

And traditions such as getting booted out of office after six years (1951&70) or less (1979) are ones Labour can live without...