Brown on uncertainty

In our blog of September 11th 2007 we reckoned that Gordon Brown would not call an election at that time and that he might live to regret it.

What has become clearer with every mini crisis is that Brown is very risk averse and that his instinct is always to try to reduce uncertainty to the minimum. This approach worked as Chancellor because he was able to focus on a narrow set of criteria and he had Blair to force through decisions when he did not have enough data for his comfort. As Prime Minister he has to make decisions without enough certainty and he has to accept that sometimes the decisions will go awry.


He is a good example of a manager playing to his strengths even when they are not appropriate for the situation. It is unlikely that he will be able to change and the electorate is starting to see the mismatch.