Gordon Brown and the peace process

Few commentators on the peace process are watched more closely than Irish Times writer and former Ulster Unionist General Secretary Frank Millar.

His latest piece, picked up by Slugger and Nuzhound, deals with a question exercising many minds in Ireland at the moment: Gordon Brown’s approach to the issue.

Three .. … points are made by people with an inside track
in Whitehall. First that, despite his determination to extend his
Treasury control over almost every government department, Mr Brown has
shown little interest in Northern Ireland. Second, that Mr Hain’s view
probably approximates with Brown’s own, that the North’s political
class ("really, for the most part, at lower council level," as one
source puts it) is pampered and over-indulged. And third that the
cautious Brown believes Blair has invested too much in the North for
too little return, and to the neglect of Labour’s real "domestic"
priorities. (Irish Times via Nuzhound)

One factor that Millar doesn’t mention is the possible impact on the
North of the Scottish elections in May, an issue dealt with by James
Kelly in a recent Irish News piece.