Less is more

I found this article in today's NY Times fascinating. Gordon Brown, the UK's new prime minister, is winning political brownie points by playing down the terror threat.

LONDON, July 3 — Before Gordon Brown took power as Britain’s new prime minister, there was much talk about whether the electorate would warm to the dour, methodical and detail-driven Scot, particularly after so many years of soaring oratory from his predecessor, Tony Blair.

The answer came more quickly than anyone thought, with the foiled terrorist attacks in London on Friday and at Glasgow Airport on Saturday, just days after Mr. Brown took office.

For his admirers, it seemed, Mr. Brown’s very dourness offered an antidote to the theatrical Mr. Blair.

In a somewhat wooden address to the nation on Saturday and in an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Mr. Brown played down the threat, treating the episodes as a crime rather than a threat to civilization. Yet, his minimalist approach seemed to strike a reassuring chord with Britons, many of whom had expressed fatigue with Mr. Blair’s apocalyptic view of terrorism.

“Gordon Brown has got off to a flying start as prime minister,” Peter Riddell, a political columnist for The Times of London, wrote Tuesday, saying Mr. Brown’s poll ratings for strength and leadership were “soaring” after the thwarted attacks.

He received high marks from civil rights groups as well. “So far, at least, Mr. Brown has passed the first test of his administration,” Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said Sunday. “He has not played politics with the terror threat, and has treated this weekend’s events as an operational rather than a political matter.”

Wouldn't it be refreshing to have someone like that running our government?