Well, after a rather busy week away it seems the topic of the moment is Gordon Brown’s character. And you’ll just have to take my word for it when I tell you that most of the insights I had on the subject while on holiday last week have been better articulated elsewhere. In Saturday’s Times Matthew Paris contrasts the intuitive political skill of his predecessor with his almost uncanny talent for attracting misfortune:
Quite. Gordon Brown's virtues are many but that ability to rise above and beyond events that came so naturally to Blair (remember how many ‘worst weeks’ he survived – they became a standing joke) is not one of them. The strange thing about Gordon’s character is that even after a week like last week certain aspects of it remain intact and are broadly agreed upon by supporters and critics - 'serious politician', 'intellectual', 'weighty', ‘cerebral’, ‘bookish' etc. Other than the than petty partisans I don’t think anyone would suggest that David Cameron or Nick Clegg / Chris Huhne are Brown’s intellectual equals. The question is though are those virtues enough to guarantee a successful premiership if they’re not allied with an air of competence?
I’ve been reading Stephen Graubard's 'The Presidents' and was struck but this quote from British historian James Bryce concerning the typical character of American Presidents:
“The elements of the Blundering Brown narrative may not be this leader's fault. What [can] be laid at his door is a dolorous incapacity to stop them gathering into a bad-news story about himself. Mr Blair had a magical anti-magnetism for blame. The iron filings were repelled, flying in every direction but his. But something about Mr Brown attracts them….A prime minister's command, his backbone, his charm, his ability to persuade and reassure, his sureness of touch, can determine whether the perception which grows is - on the one hand - of a run of incidental bad luck, or - on the other - of a government that has lost the plot. Mr Brown's karma, the feng shui of his face, seems to call in from the air the spirits of misfortune”
I’ve been reading Stephen Graubard's 'The Presidents' and was struck but this quote from British historian James Bryce concerning the typical character of American Presidents:
"Europeans often ask, and Americans do not always explain, how it happens that this great office, the greatest in the world, unless we except the papacy, to which anyone can rise by his own merits, is not more frequently filled by great and striking men. In America, which is beyond all other countries the country of a “career open to talents,” a country, moreover, in which political life is unusually keen and political ambition widely diffused, it might be expected that the highest place would always be won by a man of brilliant gifts. But from the time when the heroes of the Revolution died out with Jefferson and Adams and Madison, no person except General Grant, had, down till the end of last century, reached the chair whose name would have been remembered had he not been president, and no president except Abraham Lincoln had displayed rare or striking qualities in the chair."
The intellectual shortcomings of the current incumbent aside, US Presidents have rarely if ever attracted adjectives like ‘bookish’, ‘cerebral’ etc (some argue Woodrow Wilson was the last, others FDR – either way it’s many years back). In fact it’s a more or less established truth that any hint of intellectualism would be the kiss of death for any presidential campaign. We like to think that our political culture is a little more highbrow than in the US but the Blair / Brown contrasts suggests that might not be so.
Labels: Politics
2 Comments:
Interesting this:
Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, Shrewsbury. Accused postal workers of being involved or implicated in Labour electoral fraud a few years ago.
There was no evidence found, but I heard that he fabricated the whole story, and that in fact it was Tory supporting postal workers who were feeding Danny Boy this disinformation. After realising that the disinformation was working in his favour, he decided to roll with it. He is aware of these facts didnt inform the cops.
Now we have missing ID discs in the post…. I wouldn’t put it past the Tories.
Edward Leigh, Tory old boy, them comes up with some old emails to try and implicate Darling.
HMRC must be infiltrated with Tory spin doctor moles.
I'm afraid that's stretching credulity to breaking point 'anon' - not least because you're unwilling to put your name to the weighty allegations..!
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