Brown readies for election with policy U-turns

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday made his second strategic U-turn in as many days in an apparent bid to clear the decks of divisive policies in the run-up to a general election.

The government announced it would shelve a partial sale of Royal Mail, just a day after it watered down a controversial plan to introduce identity cards and ruled out making the cards compulsory.

Political analysts saw both moves as part of a drive by the government to abandon proposals that divided the Labour Party or alienated voters before an election that Brown must call within 11 months.

Labour lags the Conservatives by up to 16 points in the polls and faces an uphill battle to rebuild its popularity at a time when unemployment is rising and the economy is shrinking during a deep recession.

Brown, who faced down a revolt against his leadership last month and whose party has been scarred by a row over MPs' expenses, wants to neutralise issues that split Labour and its supporters.

"They are trying to look forward to the general election. They are trying to put a positive case as best they can," Steven Fielding, director of Nottingham University's Centre for British Politics, told Reuters.

Senior Conservative Ken Clarke said the government was in a state of "paralysed indecision".

"They cannot take any decision on any difficult subject," he told the BBC.