I was interested to see that Gordon Brown has appointed the Labour MP Sion Simon as Skills Minister, in the recent reshuffle. While Brown is the author of a book called Courage, Simon is the author of an article in The Spectator in 1999 which said the following about Gordon Brown:
"Confronting Milosevic is a risky venture which, from the beginning, has looked prone to end in disaster. Such projects are not for Gordon Brown. He is a man often judged by his absences. In 1993, his was the stout hand which did not come to the aid of the modernising elements of the party, when John Smith was attempting to drag Labour towards One Member One Vote. During last autumn's brief period of global economic meltdown, the Chancellor was nowhere to be seen. Admittedly, the final crisis of capitalism turned out to be a hysterical fiction got up by the media, but that was not why Brown absented himself from the fray. At times of more personal controversy - such as the frequently embarrassing escapades of Mr Charlie Whelan and his eventual sacking by the PM - Brown disappears equally silkily into the sand."
