Tom Harris didn’t much care for Dan Hannan’s speech setting about Gordon Brown. Fair enough, as a Labour MP you wouldn’t expect him to find it a hoot. But then he says this:
Well I don’t regard Gordon Brown to be the nation’s leader and I don’t think you should either. Similarly, Tony Blair was never the “nation’s leader” and nor was John Major.What was truly repugnant about his speech was the total absence of any sense of patriotism. Some Tories on the extreme right of the party share the problem of some Republicans in the States: they don’t regard the head of government to be the nation’s leader unless he or she is also a member of their little party. Gordon Brown isn’t just Labour’s prime minister; he’s Britain’s prime minister, and for any UK politician to launch such a disgraceful, personal attack on his country’s leader — in a foreign country — is nothing short of disgraceful.
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