And Another Thing…

Gordon Brown

……….A MAN

My 17 year old niece is on the verge of joining the Labour Party cos she was so inspired by GB during the election.

I might have disagreed with GB absolutely on many many things, but he’s a good man and I think you’re right about him being an asset to the House.

“Gordon Brown

……….A MAN”

…said in an Alan Partridge sort of way I feel

Gordon Brown will believe to his dying day that he did nothing but good. The evidence he has left behinds suggests that if that is the case he would be somewhat deluding himself.

I also don’t necessarily think its a good thing for ex PM’s to retire to the back benches. There are so many other ways they can contribute if they want to & to be honest, when they have been beaten and beaten up as badly has Brown has its not a good spectacle.

One of those posts that forces me to emerge from my lurking.

I can’t stand Gordon Brown. Or Labour. But I agree with Tom in the above entirely.

I think Gordon’s decision to stay in Parliament, to continue to serve his constituency and to argue for what he believes in shows how misunderstood and unfairly maligned he has been.

In saying this I have to confess that I don’t think he was best suited to being Prime Minister, but he was certainly doing the job only because he wanted to improve Britain, because he sincerely believed in helping people and in public duty.

Freed from the pressure of office, I hope we get many opportunities to hear him speak with knowledge, experience and passion throughout this Parliament.

Whilst having the experience of Ex-PMs is obviously good, I can’t say I blame either Thatcher or Blair for wanting to get out, the strain of serving as PM for 10 years has got to be huge.

However, the arrival of Margaret Thatcher also saw the end of the wartime generation of PMs (with both Callaghan and Heath serving in the forces and Wilson volunteering but being shoved into the civil service). So it’s possible they were just a different breed anyway and Brown will be bucking the new trend?

Their politics aside, I quite like the fact that Hague and Duncan-Smith are still active and senior in their party on the green benches, and not the red ones. It shows that they still want to be involved at the coal face, and weren’t so petulant as to resign altogether when they stepped down as party leader.
After a suitable break, I’d be keen to see GB make a contribution, with no need for the ambition of office, or the clout he previously held. I would expect no less from GB.

I would suggest that what a former PM does is of rather greater significance than where they do it.

John Major may have left the house at the following election, but his infrequent but generally measured public statements were a great deal more fitting than Heath’s decades long sulk.

A good leader needs to inspire those around him. A good PM needs to inspire the whole country.He may have thought his policies were correct, but he did not have the leadership skills to inspire, in fact just the oppsoite. He appeared far too single minded for a Prime Minister. He failed to see any other point of view and came over as a bully dictator type, past the point of just being strong. The Labour party now looks so old fashioned and they are still attacking people for the school they went to and what their background is.

They need to show less aggession and more understanding but I do not think they are able to do that.

I think if he’d carried on as PM his health would have suffered. For him on a personal level it’s great that he’s going to spend more time with Sarah and the children. He’s spent his entire adult life with (as Johnny says) a single-minded focus on politics, which was always to the detriment of his personal relationships.

The positive side of that, however, was that he genuinely wanted to serve and change things for the better. The cynics in the media who demonised him really don’t understand that kind of altruism. Now he’s gone maybe people will understand the sort of genuine person he actually was and history will be kind to him.

I expect he will prove to be a valuable member of parliament and serve his constituents well.

Whilst a comparison between Blair’s resignation as MP and Brown’s decision to stay on is relevant, that with Thatcher and Major is a purely tribal attempt at “Blair is only as bad as them”, not least since you have no idea whether Brown will continue to serve Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath even up to the next election, far less beyond it.

Let’s hope Brown is more loyal to the Party as a back-bench MP, than he was to Blair as a back-stabbing minister.

Agreed. I’ve had the impression that PMs have started to feel themselves above the station of constituency MP. Good to see someone recognise a responsibility to the people who voted for him.

Your admiration of Ted Heath’s role after he lost the leadership election is greater than that of most Conservatives. It was in sharp contrast to Sir Alec’s gentlemanly role as elder statesman and is widely thought to be the reason for Mrs Thatcher’s retirement in 1992 lest she be viewed as a focus for dissent at times when her successor was struggling.

I have tried to place myself in the position of a PM losing my job. If I had been removed by my party and not the electorate this would influence any decision I made. Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair were removed by their parties. At least the conservatives had an election – not so the labour party. I think Tony Blair did the right thing in going – galling watching your successor who was complicit in your removal in the top job. I also think that GB wanted rid of him.

Ted Heath was a miserable man who did not serve his party well by remaining in office for so long. Regrettably, I failed to see what he brought to the Commons. John Major was well liked. From memory, I can only recall his interventions in the house over his constituency matter (animal experimentation)? However, I do not know if he provided expertise in other policy areas.

I think the public in electing a new government do not want to see a former PM around too much. This is regardless of party – we move on awfully quickly – perhaps MPs do not?

Tom,

I don’t really understand what you mean by saying “Major and Thatcher didn’t stay on as MP’s after they resigned”. Major and Thatcher stayed as MP’s after they resigned as PM until the following election. Can you really blame them for throwing in the towel then?

Tom A – No, I can’t really blame them, if I’m honest. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to cope with defeat – either by the electorate (in Major’s case) or by your own party (in Thatcher’s). So I wouldn’t condemn them for their action; I just think it’s preferable to remain in the Commons for a while. I’m just a traditionalist, I guess.

If only we’d more often seen the Gordon Brown who gave the resignation speech in which the man rather than the politician came through. There again I thought that I detected huge relief that his premiership was over and if he were temperamentally unsuited to the office then it must have been a strain trying to maintain a facade (eg those ghastly grins at inappropriate moments).

I can imagine him being a better constituency MP than PM but I imagine that he’s only biding time until the job offer is secured (isn’t he supposed to be going to the IMF)?

BTW I’m a bit late, but congrats, Tom, on holding your seat.