Brown’s series of events promoting Britishness were an expensive flop
Gordon Brown’s series of national events intended to promote the idea of Britishness have become an expensive failure.
Members of the public, councillors, local government officers, and even ministers have failed to attend the events which were intended to help decide whether there is a need for a written constitution or a British Bill of Rights and duties.
According to the Times Online, only ten members of the public came to the first event in Leicester in December 2007, which was hosted by Jack Straw and cost £37,000. After this failure, the Ministry of Justice are said to have made attendance at Governance of Britain events invitation only, and the ministry even paid people to attend.
According to the Times, councillors have increasingly ignored the events. A total of 21 local authority representatives turned up in Leicester, but the attendance from LA representatives at later events gradually fell to 2, and eventually, at an event in Newcastle on November 21 this year no councillors or officials at all were in attendance.
Even ministers are said to have ignored the roadshow, with Nick Brown, the Labour Chief Whip and Minister for the North East, missing last month’s event and Michael Wills, the Justice Minister, who had been to the previous events, also failing to attend.
