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Monday 21 May 2012

The Myth of Gordon Brown the Eternal Battler

Sunday, 3rd January 2010

Self-delusion is an important skill in politics. If you can't convince yourself that what you're saying is true then good luck with convincing the electorate. Among Gordon Brown's difficulties is the unfortunate truth that he's not an accomplished liar. So, for instance, when he tells Andrew Marr this morning that

"Everything I have ever won in my life I have had to fight for."

voters can be excused finding this preposterous. True, Brown's eye-troubles and his battles to help modernise the Labour party have been struggles, but within the context of his own upbringing and political history, Brown's as much an establishment figure as, in his own very different way and in a different sense, David Cameron. Brown's childhood was a privileged one in the context of Kirkcaldy and being a Son of the Manse (to say nothing of his own hot-housed education). From there he moved to Edinburgh University (where he was Rector) and subsequently seamlessly graduated to a position at the heart of the Scottish Labour movement.

Yes, there have been battles on the way. But many of the most significant struggles have been internal ones: first against the old guard, then against the Blairites as Brown nursed his wrath for a decade and built what amounted to an internal opposition. Only rarely (between 1995 and 1997 for example) however, has Brown's focus been on persuading people who don't vote Labour to support the party. Here too, one may observe that he's a party man through and through. It's inconceivable that Brown could be anything other than a Labour man. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

But one of Blair's great strengths was that he was not actually of the Labour movement. This gave him a breadth of imagination and, yes, empathy, that Brown has always lacked. Indeed, had Labour won the 1979 election it's not impossible to imagine Blair joining the Conservative party. A different time, of course, but the point remains: Blair could connect with people who didn't understand Labour because, for some time, he was one of those people too.

Brown, by contrast, lacks that imaginative quality and this is, in the end, one of the things that has doomed his career. If you cannot conceive of the other, far less acknowledge that other people might disagree with you in good faith, you're condemned to be little more than a tribalist. That's not necessarily disastrous in fat times; it becomes a problem in lean ones.

And in the end, while there's some truth to the notion that the British have a sympathy for the underdog, they prefer their underdogs to be plucky and stoical, not wallowing in self-pity.

Filed under: Britain (737 more articles) , Brown (180 more articles) , Labour (2135 more articles)

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Noa Zrk

January 3rd, 2010 12:59pm Report this comment

Alex. I initially misread the title to this amusing little piece as '...The myth of Brown the eternal Butler...'.
Oh, would that he had made such a career choice! Then only he, and not we all, would have been doomed, doomed, doomed by this heavy handed Jeeves wannabe.

Nicholas

January 3rd, 2010 2:35pm Report this comment

" . . . and subsequently seamlessly graduated to a position at the heart of the Scottish Labour movement."

Let's hope he seamlessly returns from whence he came and vexes the English no more.

Doug Smith

January 3rd, 2010 2:38pm Report this comment

By far the biggest fight Gordon Brown has had - and indeed the labour party is the vipers of the press (almost all owned by right wing bigots) If the papers were honest on the way they reported events and refrained from the type of opinion I have just read in your paper. The people of this country would be far more enlightened. The media are more interested in persuasion of there own ideals than reporting honestly.

George J

January 3rd, 2010 2:44pm Report this comment

Noa Zrk
Jeeves' genius was in extricating his friends from awkward situations, the very antithesis of Brown's modus operandi.

Surely Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred, is a better comparison - helping Batman to save the world.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

January 3rd, 2010 2:44pm Report this comment

Brown as a butler! A butler!! Surely not Jeeves. Perhaps Joshua the butler in Anouilh's "Ring Round The Moon". Joshua was not a fool, but the description given for him well fits Brown - A crumbling butler.

dearieme

January 3rd, 2010 3:22pm Report this comment

Come to think of it, Brown's main merit may have been to have been senior in the Scottish Labour Party without being (as far as I know) (1) a creature of the Soviet Union, or (2) financially corrupt, or (3) a Roman Catholic, or (4) stupid and ignorant. Well done, Gordy!

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

January 3rd, 2010 3:41pm Report this comment

Doug Smith: Interesting and thought-provoking. Do you include The Guardian in your list of rabid right-wing papers? How about the rest of the media? Perhaps the BBC too?

Nicholas

January 3rd, 2010 5:02pm Report this comment

Doug Smith: "By far the biggest fight Gordon Brown has had - and indeed the labour party is the vipers of the press"

Ha ha ha! Too funny! "Right wing bigots"! Are there any other kind? Hilarious. The Left has been snake-charming the press for decades and only now, when the manipulation is no longer working, are the press suddenly "the enemy".

I'm so glad you posted Doug - or is it "Comical Ali". It reminds us how desperate, deluded and deranged the Left is. Bereft of everything except the cunning to fight "the mother of all election battles" and win - in your tiny little minds.

Noa Zrk

January 3rd, 2010 5:05pm Report this comment

Doug Smith, AWK I.
ok, ok.
I did say a Jeeves wannabe, not the great man himself. If one was to select a mentor for a butling Gordon if would for me, have to be the truly incompetent Cato; forever trying unsuccessfully to dispose of his master the bumbling Inspector Clouseau by various backstabbing means.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

January 3rd, 2010 5:28pm Report this comment

Noa Zrk, Hello there. I'm feeling rather drowsy.
The usual late Sunday afternoon feeling of too much to eat and not enough exercise, so excuse my lack of wit.
To add to your good suggestion how about Laurel and Hardy (Brown with CHOOSE) or Tom and Gerry?

logdon

January 3rd, 2010 6:26pm Report this comment

Three points of connection.

Battler.

Butler.

Bottler.

Noa Zrk

January 3rd, 2010 7:43pm Report this comment

Greetings Anna W Kaye I.
If Sunday has been a little too sedentary for you it's nice to see your new laptop is getting some exercise!
Truth be told I've run short of iconic butlers myself. I did look at Logdon's bottlers, but aside from David Copperfield's bottle washing experiences and Codin the bottler's role in carrying Punch in The Old Curiosity Shop, there didn't seem to be any clear role models for the old glass scrubber in the literary classics. He certainly doesn't compare to Mrs Zrk, who is the illustrious and far more highly valued creator and bottler
of the highly prized Zrk's Sloe Gin. A Sunday cure for the ague, financial insolvency, jihadism and political indecision if ever there was one.
Cheers!

revolution

January 4th, 2010 3:07am Report this comment

We have long been aware that Blair is a much better liar than Brown/

Archie

January 4th, 2010 6:55am Report this comment

Curses, logdon! You beat me to the "Bottler" jibe!

Craig Strachan

January 4th, 2010 7:58am Report this comment

"...Brown's childhood was a privileged one in the context of Kirkcaldy."

And positively gilded in the context of Buckhaven.

John Tait

January 5th, 2010 5:05am Report this comment

Or in comparison to the middens and bings of Lochgelly, Auchterderan and Lumphinans.

As a Church of Scotland Minister in posh Kircaldy, Gordon's Dad would have been one the "pillars of society". The son would have inherited the "borne to rule" persona.

anne wotana kaye 1

January 6th, 2010 5:16pm Report this comment

Noa Zrk: Greetings!
How about some sloe gin to give a certain man some bottle? However, I believe that with Hewitt and the other H on his case, it will be rather like "Arsenic and Old Lace." Elderberry Wine!

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