The Skimmer

Why the Daily Mail thinks a three year-old interview with Gordon Brown will change peoples’ opinions of him

The Daily Mail has paid a small fortune to secure the rights to a dull book, which has taken three years to publish, by a minor Scottish aristocrat, who runs a jewellery business, used to sit on the Court of St Andrews University and is distantly related to the Queen through marriage to James Ogilvy, son of Angus Ogilvy and Princess Alexandra, granddaughter of George V. The Skimmer understands the first extract might appear tomorrow.
 
A strange waste of money from the normally astute Mail, you might think. But among the interviews in Turning Points, by Julia Ogilvy, is one with Gordon Brown (she is a friend of Sarah’s) and, though it was done in 2006, there are some moving words about the death of the Browns’ first child: at one point he reportedly breaks down in tears.
 
Mail editors plan to tout this as the most sensational and revealing interview ever given by a sitting British Prime Minister which will change our perceptions of him as a dour, cold-hearted Scot. The Skimmer is sure it will be very moving, especially about that most awful time in the Browns’ life. But it is three years old, public perceptions of Mr Brown are pretty much set in stone — and it is, perhaps, too late for the sympathy vote.

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