If Mr Hart of Sutton Coldfield represents the silent majority, then as a jingoistic, selfish, racists, i'm not sure this country will ever be "great".

Jasper, Edinburgh,

Well said. In his efforts to face both ways simultaneously, Brown is becoming more Blairite than Blair. The question of what Brown stands for is as opaque as it was before he became PM.

John, Oxford, UK

Brown must chuckle in his sleep.He has somehow(according to the media)convince people he had nothing to do with the last government.Nothing to do with failure in the education system,Nothing to do with the debacle in the N.H.S.,nothing to do with the mass immigration and its consequencesi.e.overloading the Health and education system and housing just for starters,and of course as Chancellor he did not cut funding for the Army in real terms resulting in infantry regiments being scrapped with the consequent result to overstreched British forces in Afghanistan and Iraqi.
I hope you will print this letter even though it is not the media line at the moment.IT IS the view of the silent majority

robin hart, Sutton Coldfield, U.K.

For all the comments made in the Times, Joe public only reads the other rubbish pappers so Joe will be ignorant of the comments from intelligent people.
I only hope people will come to their senses and get rid of Labour and all there tax increases, Labour are killing this great country!

David, Nottingham,

'Opaque on domestic issues'? Hopefully for Britain, the German chancellor's way of 'government' has not rubbed off on Brown.

A. Schelberg, Germany,

Giving George Bush the cold shoulder at the press conference has done Brown no harm at all. Bush is still toxic even in the US with record low approval ratings threatening to go below Nixon's prior to his threatened impeachment. Brown is a Democrat at heart and will have spent time with them at the Congress. They will, in all probability, control the White House after January 2009.

oldasiahand, Guildford, UK

Perhaps thinking through the options to accompany whichever of several scenarios follows the longest economic expansion in the experience of most people leaves little time for immediate action for all the other inherited issues that go with the territory.

There should be time to tackle these when they seem of greater relative importance, or to divert minds from other things.

Sometimes a good captain needs to keep eyes on the distant horizon to make any adjustment to the tiller in good time, rather than excessively tinkering with the vessel.

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

You're right! Brown's policies are opaque whereas Cameron's policies are...

...

Oh.

Hugh, London,

Alice Miles sets out a list of problems as long as one's arm that will take Brown another 10 years, let alone his first month. So far he has not put a foot wrong, he is far more astute than she gives him credit, as shown by the reason there was no love-in with President, because Bush is on his way out.
As for the advice she gives David Cameron, again I defer. we do not need more Cameron initiatives, just a Leader of the Opposition, a job vacant for too long Brown's strategy will be to bore us to death, thus evoking the country's mood, as shown by low election turn-outs, like most cars on the road, all parties look unexciting and alike.
The electorate is becoming more mature, they do not believe in the Brown/Cameron fantasy of world class public services, they are learning to look after themselves., correctly leaving immigration, security, crime. etc. to the government. Include the Heathrow shopping mall, unable to cope, as they leave in droves, either on holiday or never to return.

M.Fishman, London,

Dave of London,
I could not have said it better myself

Mike Hagan, Salta , Argentina

I go along with the earlier writer's "to hell with the cynics". At last we have a leader again and a statesman to boot. Is Alice Miles seriously suggesting that Blair would have made a better job of things so far? Having vote Tory for most of my life I can, nowadays, find not one single justification for doing so again. As for David Cameron, as with Blair, would you buy a second-hand car from him?

CRL Child, Ajaccio, Corsica, France

And who, pray, is Alice Miles exactly, and what are her credentials that she should be permitted to ask such an impertinent question in the first place ?

K Philips, London, UK

Oh dear you Tory supporting journalists, do not know what to do.
Your dream boy, Dave, may in some eyes be a like able chap in some of the Tory held south .
However Tony Blair was nice, but when looked at more closely he was found wanting.
The unfortunate thing for Dave, is that it took seven years to find out Blair, it has only took seven months to find out Dave.
He said"He was the heir to Blair", unfortunately, the country also thinks this too.
His legacy will be failure and humiliation for Dave.

wayne stamps, Doncaster, England

Mr Brown remains what he has always been....a Tory.

Judy , Liverpool, england

Brown is just a MUPPET who wants to appear, to the world, that he is a "Macho Man"

John Cole, London, United Kingdom

I think a better question to ask is what politics is in Britain today? I think Brown knows exactly what he's doing, glitz and glam, few buzz words here, proprietary speeches there. Tell the mob what it wants to hear and the idiot elecorate will gobble it up and vote for party thats making the right kind of noises. Problem the UK has is there are multiple issues of great importance and not enough resource to manage them. Perhaps I'm pessimistic, but i think the UK is on the decline and policiticans are flapping about trying to find a quick fix. To not only to hault the descent on the slippy slope, but also give their careers a boost. Unfortunately thats costing tom, dick and sally quite a lot.

Dave, London, UK

Gordy is trying to be all things to all people! He'll continue with a lot of the old Blair policies and continue to court America while sneaking in more stealth taxes to pay for his lavish and overly generous donations overseas without prioritising UK domestic policy. The Scots will get preferential treatment. He won't last long and is gonna go nowhere!

Lulu, Aberdeen, Scotland,

The Press are rather confused and annoyed because Gordon Brown does not take much trouble to communicate with them. Tony Blair dedicated himself to stroking the media, or sometimes allowing his minions to bash them. The lack of attention from Mr Brown is hurtful and makes it harder work to write about him.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

It is clear that Brown's 'moral compass' is in dire need or accurate callbration. He is desperate to appear unlike his former boss, Blair and therefore in public he tries to be aloof from Bush but in private it is business as usual, snuggling up close.
Blair and Brown were the architects of New Labour and the damage they have done to this country could take more than a generation to correct. I am referring to the New Labour legacy of high taxes, high wastage in public services, extraordinary levels of violent crime, the fractured society, the illegal war in Iraq, the widening gap between rich and poor....the list is endless. Brown is the same as Blair despite his desperate efforts to seem different.

Rick, London, England

I've certainly impressed with PM Brown, it does feel as if the tide is changing and I look forward to a successful sail to the future.

Farrukh, Woking, UK

Cameron has shown himself to be a lightweight, obsessed with trying to define the middle ground of irrelevant debate about insubstantial matters better left to the school playground.

Brown on the other hand has come out of the gate at speed with an agenda that has positioned him at the pinnacle of the high intellectual ground in the international debates that matter. Anyone with a mind to - can see immediately where Brown is going and I for one will be more than happy to follow his leadership. Well done Gordon, keep it up.

Richard Evans, what a wonderful description; encapsulating the state of the United States leadership today. Worth framing.

Chris Coles, Medstead, Alton, United Kingdom

Excellent and incisive article. The dog which is not barking at the moment is immigration - as Alice Miles points out, an issue at the top of people's concerns, since it has been running at completely unsustainable levels. It is an issue where the Conservatives have the credibility, if only Cameron maximises it in the right way. But where does Brown stand on this crucial issue? Now here is a challenge for the media - why don't you ask him?

Richard, Worcester, England

Well said. In his efforts to face both ways simultaneously, Brown is becoming more Blairite than Blair. The question of what Brown stands for is as opaque as it was before he became PM.

John, Oxford, UK

Has everyone forgotten that Brown is the man who has wrecked the pension schemes of just about everyone in the UK. Carefully fleeced both business and individuals of millions through underhand and undeclared taxes. Been the chancellor when the gap between the rich and poor has got wider (great socialism!) Failed to invest enough in basic infrastructure particularly transport.He has also supported our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan at huge expense to us all. The baggage he brings with him to the PMs office is being ignored by almost everybody, like rabbits caught in head lamps, lets hope we dont get run over.

mike gee, bournemouth, uk

Alice Miles is spot on. Brown is far too much a complex character, which probably led to him being given the label of 'psychologically flawed'.

This is not really the personality that any country needs in its leader.

Trying to be half so clever, he will eventually come unstuck, and it will be spectacular.

David, Newcastle,

It seems to be ways simpler than people think. Brown needs to have an election early to get a 5 year mandate, and not risk things imploding in the next couple of years. Cameron and the Tories cannot win an early election so they need to do everything in their power to delay an election until the economy has gone sour.

If Brown gets a new 5 year mandate he may be able to weather an economic rocky patch and look good again when the next election is held ....

phil, sacramento, California

Mr Brown is only going backwards. Half baked socialist control freakery failed eastern europe and will fail the UK.

Its time for change and thats going to come from only one party

Andrew Smeeton, Storrington,

I am deeply suspicious of Gordon Brown as he takes us, bound hand and foot, to some unknown purgatory. i am always doubly suspicious of politicians who are 'passionate' about something, after all the government in a democracy should be leading us where we think we should go. Gordon Brown thinks he is David Livingstone with money (our money) which he wishes to throw all over the place abroad.

Dr J Findlater, Carnforth,

As a British subject living in the United States I would have hoped the new Prime Minister would have kept his shoulder a further distance from Bush's shoulder when the two met. No country should want a special relationship with a man who has made America the most feared and hated nation in the world; has blindly pursued policies that have killed nearly 4,000 of his own people and maimed thousands more, not to mention the countless tens of thousands of civilian Iraqi deaths, many of them at the hands of American forces, and has flouted every known covenenant of a civilised society by sending people to other countries to be tortured and locked up hundreds without charge and without recourse to any sort of trial at Guantanamo. Unhappily, we have to put up with him and his evil henchman Cheney for another 16 months. It would behove Gordon Brown to keep his distance until a person with a clearer understanding of democracy and human decency takes over.

Richard Evans, Richmond, Virginia, USA

Gordon Brown should be opaque about the US for the moment. It is vital that he keeps at arm's length an American leader who was regarded as a village idiot before his election as leader of the most dangerous nation on earth, and has continued to act like one ever since, with disastrous and tragic consequences for the US and the world in general. I like to think Brown is simply marking time with a valuable ally until it has a responsible leader, early 2009. Then we may see beyond the opacity.

bob hawkins, tinderbox, tasmania, australia

Indeed, it isn't difficult to find fault with Mr Brown only one month into his new administration, so why is Cameron not doing so? That is the central problem. Instead of remaking his own and his parties' image he should be attacking Labour's. Brown is terribly good at giving a good impression, of spinning and making things look better than they really are. Cameron of late seems to have discovered a talent for doing the opposite. The remedy is surely to attack Brown at every opportunity, to point out the deceit, the spin, the obfuscation and the double speak. Then start talking about alternative policies.

And it is time Mr Cameron showed a bit of mettle in his appointments instead of showy sackings of minor figures for trivial transgressions. The shadow chancellor is clearly not up to the job and should be replaced over the summer. This is a no brainer. Failure to do this will merely provoke more unflattering comparisons to Blair and his fondness for cronies all around him.

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

Mr Brown has done his homework and is going places. A positive start for our new Prime Minister. Congratulations. To hell with the cynics and the 404 Error page.

Brian Charles Seals, Scarborough, Nth Yorks, England