James Forsyth James Forsyth

For Brown, it’s never his fault

There was a classic Brown interview exchange in his face the voters session on the Politics Show today:

Q: Would you accept the criticism that came from your home secretary on this issue, that maybe you’ve been a little kind of, eye taken off the ball?  I think we have cruised a bit on this because we were tackling issues like counter-terrorism.  We let the focus slip. BROWN: He said that some time ago I think and I think it’s quite – Q: October 2009. BROWN: Yes. Q: So six months ago. BROWN: We’ve taken, we’ve taken action to improve neighbourhood policing over these last few months, to introduce a victims’ commissioner, to make sure that anti-social behaviour is being dealt with with new rights.  If you do not get – Q: Is he right, is he right?  Did you let the focus slip? BROWN: No, I didn’t. Q: Well did the government? BROWN: I didn’t. Q: Well Alan Johnson is saying the government did. BROWN: I didn’t.  

Brown’s inability to accept that he is at fault really is quite remarkable. Earlier in the show, he said that ‘anybody who loses their job has got a right to be angry because this was caused by the banks’. In other words, it is nothing to do with the man who was chancellor between 1997 and 2007 and then prime minister.
 

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