The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson has an excellent comparison of the effectiveness of Brown’s and Cameron’s inner circles (hit-tip: Red Box). As Nelson reports, the new Leo McGarry double act in Number 10 – Stephen Carter running the special advisers, Jeremy Heywood the officials – seems to be delivering:
The PM no longer takes part in the No. 10 early morning conference call — where Whitehall’s commanders are given their marching orders. Instead, he has ceded the floor to Mr Carter who ensures everything is in order then reports back. If an issue arose with another department, Mr Brown’s instinct was to engage in some light telephone terrorism by ringing the Cabinet member involved. Now, say those inside No10, he will leave it to Carter and Heywood to talk to their counterparts and resolve the issue. In the early days, Brown was once notorious for refusing to release any document or plan he had not signed off – making No 10 a bottleneck. Now, he is content to hear Carter or Heywood has given the all clear.
The tone of conversations inside No10 has already changed. Those who overhear Mr Carter and Mr Heywood in their meetings with Mr Brown say that phrases like ‘It’s OK, we’ll fix it’ or “it’s all right, we’ll deal with it” are common. The Prime Minister’s supporters say he’s always devolved to people he trusted – it’s just that he could count the people he trusted on two hands. Now, in Carter and Heywood, he has come the closest to replacing Ed Balls and Ed Miliband – whom he lost to the Commons in 2005 and now serve in his Cabinet. “Gordon is normally very, very slow to trust new people,” one Brownite tells me. “But he trusts Carter.” It may sound incredible, but Gordon is slowly letting go.
