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In defence of Gordon Brown
It's not a fashionable view, and I'm not saying he is faultless, but much of the criticism being heaped on Gordon Brown is unfair
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Madeleine Bunting
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 September 2009 19.30 BST
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Gordon Brown at the Labour party conference. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex Features

I can launch my own catalogue of complaints against Gordon Brown as well as the next columnist, but I've no appetite right now to join what increasingly sounds like a mob lynching. There is something about the assembled chorus of received wisdom which makes me go contrary; group think rarely produces good judgments. The Labour party is panicking and there is no better way to assuage their sense of failure than to heap the blame on Brown. Plus, the relish with which Brown's many critics are pitching in makes me suspicious.

So here are a few arguments in an unfashionable cause: Brown's defence. His speech to the Labour party conference was lambasted for its promise of change; the argument was that New Labour has had 12 years to deliver change and it shouldn't need more time. But this is absurd impatience. Who presumes that a government has the power to transform a country in little over a decade? Labour wanted a generation in power – the country needed it after a generation of chronic underinvestment in public services. So Brown is entirely right to talk of work unfinished, a job half done, and journalists are the least well-equipped to complain. Journalism is a profession built on impatience – most forms of social change are vastly harder and slower to achieve than filing an article.

Next up is the idea that the electorate doesn't like Brown. This is an odd thing to say about a politician. I don't expect to like prime ministers; they are hardly going to be my dinner guests. I want them to do a good job; what I feel about their personalities is irrelevant. Was Clement Attlee a bundle of laughs? Did Lloyd George treat women well? Surely after Tony Blair's energetic charm, which did so much to win 1997 and proved such a disillusionment, we might have opted for another way to measure a politican's worth.

Much of the criticism hurled at Brown seems odd. His speech tacked this way then that; he commits the crime of triangulation. But this is a peculiar accusation given that New Labour was all about triangulation. Blair did it all the time, facing both ways. The only difference is that Blair was more adept, Brown is clunky – but that is a difference of style not substance.

Another odd charge is that he lacks conviction. Yet his speech yesterday seemed evidence that he is one of those rare politicians who does have conviction. The commitment to 0.7% for international aid is to be enshrined in law. And although the speech was spun as an appeal to the middle classes, he was proposing to take the childcare tax credit away from the middle classes to pay for free nursery care for the neediest two-year-olds. This is a man whose instinct for social justice is still evident after 12 years in power.

I'm not saying that Brown is faultless. Of course not. He lacks style; he lacks key political skills in building alliances and in conveying clarity. He probably has some major personality faults – too controlling – but there is a dangerous myopia afoot here. Think big picture and politics is always about the least worst option. In that frame, Brown is a no-brainer. In the midst of the financial crisis, the worst in decades, he didn't dither (as he is often accused of) and he didn't flinch from making decisions involving huge sums of money. Who can imagine that Cameron would have had the experience and confidence to have acted as decisively.

Be wary, scapegoating serves a deeply entrenched psychological need in human beings. The iniquities of Brown are being used and elaborated as a foil for a tumultuous year of failures. Far more deserving candidates for the collective frustration are lurking unnoticed at the back of the baying mob.

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jamesfrobisher
30 Sep 09, 10:56pm (about 6 hours ago)

Even I once felt a twinge of admiration for the Auld Fraud. At least he managed to dump the dreadful Blairs on their smarmy arses. Nothing else this calculating control freak he has done since then is the faintest bit worthy of praise. Nothing.

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timnbd
30 Sep 09, 10:58pm (about 6 hours ago)

Far more deserving candidates for the collective frustration are lurking unnoticed at the back of the baying mob.

Name names.

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ChanceyGardener
30 Sep 09, 11:24pm (about 5 hours ago)

This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted.

4 cuts on this thread already. Impressive, and more than Gordon will ever do.

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UncleVanya
30 Sep 09, 11:31pm (about 5 hours ago)

Whatever folks have to say about Gorodn Brown. He is basically an honest man, and has integrity. However, like many, one has never met the man, nor does one know much of him except from his speeches, and what the press, (good, bad or indifferent), say about him.

Mr Brown was promoted above his capabilities IMHO. He should never have been elevated to Cabinet Rank by Blair. He should have remained a Constituency MP where he could have done the best for his constituency. However, some often get ability mixed up with ambition. In Brown's case, this may be true - over ambitious, but lacking the necessary abilities.

Whatever happens over rthe next weeks and months until the given date of the next General Election (possibly Wednesday 5th of May 2010), Brown will have more and more pressure thrust on him. In view of the rumours around the Press, and the Westmisnter Village about his health. He may just crack under this pressure. That would be a pity.

History may or may not be kind to him, or his own numerous cabinet colleagues, current and ex. We will have to wait and see.

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donandgeorge
30 Sep 09, 11:56pm (about 5 hours ago)

Poor Gordon. As he's such a nice guy (kinda like Tony Blair) let's give him four more years

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tomper2
30 Sep 09, 11:56pm (about 5 hours ago)

The commitment to 0.7% for international aid is to be enshrined in law.

Oh dear god, he's going to try to govern from beyond the grave.

I'd love to know if this is really enforceable. It's so deranged it probably is.

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emale
01 Oct 09, 12:00am (about 5 hours ago)

UncleVanya 30 Sep 09, 11:31pm

Whatever folks have to say about Gorodn Brown. He is basically an honest man, and has integrity.

I'm afraid you're deceiving yourself. May I suggest you read this article which compares an honest, decent politician, Jim Callaghan, with a deceitful self-serving politician, Gordon Brown

Instead, though, Brown chose to ignore the truth and delivered a cynical deception. He claimed he could make the swingeing cuts in spending without reducing front-line services in health, education, and law and order.

For someone who was Chancellor for ten years and is well versed at handling departmental budgets, Brown must know that these claims are not even remotely true.

Indeed, he failed to outline a single spending cut – an omission which reeks of personal cowardice and a culpable refusal to deal with the dire circumstances created by the worst recession in 60 years.

Nor was that all. With reckless irresponsibility, Brown then launched himself into a long list of spending commitments as if Britain were enjoying an economic boom.

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physiocrat
01 Oct 09, 12:37am (about 4 hours ago)

It has always astonished me that he was ever even chosen to be Shadow Chancellor. He gave a particularly lacklustre performance at a Conference fringe meeting in Brighton long before 1997.

Brown was hatching disaster from 1995 when he took on Ed Balls and they cooked up their economic policies which have brought the UK to its present parlous state.

It was a huge error of judgement to go for the "prize" of prime-ministership after Blair left. That the "prize" turned to ashes in his hands was a just reward for his foolishness. The man has a fatal character flaw.

Brown should have known that there was a bust on the way when Blair went. The fact that he did not is itself proof of incompetence. If Brown had the least bit of circumspection he would have retired with honour and respect and taken a place in the House of Lords.

Brown is a disaster to himself and the country.

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matteo80
01 Oct 09, 12:47am (about 4 hours ago)

PeterGuillam

I disagree, perhaps media headlines contain some of what you say but the vast majority of people want from government just a few simple things

The main one is this.
1. their money to not be squandered on bullshit.

and then to a lesser extent these.

2. Honesty and transparency in politics
3. Fairness in society. People to have at least a fair chance to make something good out of their lives.
4. A non totalitarian society.

See emale's excellent post on how Brown has screwed up number 1.

I'd wager there is 80-90% support on all 4 of those points and I don't think the English are difficult to govern.

I think the problem is that we are too easy to govern. We role over and do nothing when we get shafted.

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EllsBells
01 Oct 09, 12:56am (about 4 hours ago)

This is a brave and brilliant article, well done.

I'd also like to echo the praise for PeterGuilsam's post; spot on. RayNoble made some great points too.

Madeleine, the most important point in your article (IMHO) is this:

Think big picture and politics is always about the least worst option. In that frame, Brown is a no-brainer.

I notice that - as always - this article is littered with highly-recommended, anti-Brown posts which fail to address the fact that the alternative is David Cameron. This makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall. I feel like shaking these people.

The Brown bashers and their recommenders probably total between 100 and 200 people here. Please can just ONE of you come forward and explain why you think David Cameron and the Tories wouldn't have done any of the things that you're so angry with Labour about, i.e....

Iraq
Bailing out bankers
ID cards
Tax breaks for the rich
Introducing tuition fees
Expenses
Generally lying
Will say anything to get into power (and Cameron wouldn't - are you kidding me?!)

About the only thing Cameron has over Brown is charisma and the ability to spot a bandwagon a mile away. I would say that anybody who thinks that the Tories would have behaved any better than Labour in respect of the above issues is very naive indeed. In fact, I seem to remember that one of the biggest prevailing disappointments about New Labour is the fact that they started adopting Tory-esque policies, like the ones mentioned above.

Now we're so enraged about it that we're going to vote the Tories in. Great.

To be it's the political equivalent of saying 'I'm so afraid of having a brain tumour that I'm going to get a lobotomy.'

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matteo80
01 Oct 09, 12:59am (about 4 hours ago)

EllsBells

I wasn't aware the only alternative is David Cameron.

It makes me despair at what a limited imagination some people have.

I used to work for the electoral department. My first election (local) there was something like a 30% turnout.

The English can have any government they want if they simply voted in a way that corresponded with their convictions.

If a person votes for Tory or Labour they simply deserve the royal arse fucking they will receive.

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chekhov
01 Oct 09, 1:59am (about 3 hours ago)

It's waste of time commenting on CIF when the best post of the day gets deleted; "mdwriter" wrote it and it got deleted. Says it all really!

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VoidStar
01 Oct 09, 2:10am (about 3 hours ago)

There is a blindingly simple way for Gordon to totally restore his reputation and give Labour a chance at winning the election.

Simply, hold Tony Blair to account for his misdeeds. Gordon needn't even make an active move to accomplish this.

Just let one of the blocking manoeuvers on any of the various police enquiries surrounding the previous premiership lapse.

Instantly, the bitterness of the electorate would have a focus on the previous prime minister and away from Gordon.

And Tony would have an opportunity to lay down his life for his party.

With love.

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oalexander
01 Oct 09, 3:21am (about 1 hour ago)

Mr Brown had the opportunity to give his speeches at the conference. Essentially, he promised to get tougher on crime - the perennial smallest common denominator issue - and else not much beyond commonplaces.

As limp and bloodless as the rest of his party he is. They stand no longer for the common man - they are a party without clientele. The only reason to vote for Labour these days is the fear, that the others might be even worse. Anyway, Labour needs a rest urgently, and maybe they will come back in five years or ten years time.

We can hope that the others might not be too harsh, as they might be interested in re-election too.

Brown may well be a decent guy, but there are many of those about, and not necessarily all of them have to become PM.

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divesandlazarus
01 Oct 09, 3:38am (about 1 hour ago)

He lacks style; he lacks key political skills in building alliances and in conveying clarity. He probably has some major personality faults – too controlling.........

.......and that's it?

Howabout his betrayal of the armed services?

Howabout the disgraceful smearing and personal attacks?

Howabout buying votes in northern England with tax-payer's money

Howabout the ripping off of peoples' pensions - the ones they planned for for decades only to be left with a very frugal retirement?

Howabout assiduously avoiding the electorate?

Howabout his constant lies about what he has done, and his consistent refusal to admit his failures?
.
.
.
So, there are a fair few more failings than the ones you mentioned.

Please add to the list - callousness, cruelty, cowardice and calculating dishonesty.

He may have made the right decision last autumn in respect of the financial meltdown - but that is ONE thing he has done right in 13yrs.

His minuses far outweigh this. For his betrayal of the forces alone - and don't working class lads make up the majority of the infantry - he deserves to be burnt at the stake, and I will happily light the kindling.

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divesandlazarus
01 Oct 09, 3:41am (about 1 hour ago)

@unclevanya

"........basically an honest man......integrity......."

You need either to get a dictionary or else see a doctor.

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fairer
01 Oct 09, 3:47am (55 minutes ago)

Gordon Brown makes us face the reality how naive we all are.
But can we run away from the truths?
1) sleaze in goverment big time.
2) we were denied the promised referendum on the EU
3) tough on crime? when the exact opposite is applied.
4) over 11 million live below the poverty line in UK. Now thats the truth !

I am more than sure, that every promise made by Gordon Brown will disappear like the morning mist if he is elected again.

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divesandlazarus
01 Oct 09, 3:48am (54 minutes ago)

@bunting

One last point............if it is 'unfair' to 'scapegoat' Brown, when may one see a piece from you condemning the mindless, bigoted vitriol heaped on Thatcher?

I assume that when she pegs out - within the next few years probably - you will be writing a fair and balanced piece on her merits and demerits.

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Higherheights
01 Oct 09, 4:34am (7 minutes ago)

You wonder what all the hue and cry is about . - re the Sun's allegiance switch to Camerons' Conservative Party . So ! News to me since I had always thought Murdock's new ' bed partner ' was always so because of all the dirt and negativity - personal or otherwise heaped on his 'old protege' - The Labour Party . With friends or Backers like that !

At least American based Australian ' turn-coat' lizard Murdock's intention is out of the 'closet' . To be forewarned is to be forearmed ! The Sun likes to be perceived as a Political Power broker -- seeming to employ fear , bullying tactics to achieve its goal . There may yet be a backlash - STARTING HERE !
It can influence ---yes ; but to pompously arrogate to ' itself ' the mantle of final arbither of Power - Broking (change) is actually insulting to Sun readers whom it is assumed can't decide whom to cast their votes for come election day - inspite of any earlier exagerated mis-information put out !

However , it must be remembered Murdock is a businessman who is exploiting Peoples anxieties and fears because of the present economic crises and would like to be on the winning side !

If Change of Government come's after the election , it would have been because Teflon Tony had used up Gordon's Economic Genius and goodwill to gain 3- terms + the fact that People want Change for Change itself regardless of who is at the helm of Government .

STOP HOUNDING THE PRIME MINISTER !

Of Course his featherweight opponents -- Cameron , Osbourne , Clegg or any other names being relentlessly bandied & Promoted by the Press for a very long long time now would not bring anything new to the table . . At least for now , Gordon Brown is all I can see to lead the country from the present financial mess . Yes , I have heard the one about him being the Chancellor before Prime Minister !

Let us not forget the Bankers , Wall Street and the part they all had to play in all these economic downturn .

Meantime the Tories ( gleefully ) and Lib Dems are counting their chickens before they are hatched ! Never write off any politician , let alone Gordon Brown .

A DAY IS A LONG TIME IN POLITICS ; Let alone 6 MONTHS+ , WHO KNOWS !!