Poor Gordon Brown. The day that his first major interview since the election came out also happened to be the day that the first huge news story for weeks broke. What timing.
The interview, in today’s Independent, focuses (at Brown’s behest) on his constituency work in Fife. The ex-prime minister, who comes across as relaxed and happy on his own turf, insists that it hasn’t been “that difficult” to adjust to life away from Downing Street.
He downplays the sustained media attacks that characterised his last months in office, saying he is “pretty resilient”. Asked whether he wished he’d revealed more of himself, he says:
I’ve never had anything to hide. I’m an open book. People can ask me anything they like. It’s up to other people to make their judgements about me. I’m not someone who wants to go around being a public relations officer to myself. It’s up to others to say, “Does he go about his job in a sort of dignified, fair, reasonable way?” If the newspapers decide that’s not the case, then I’ve got to live with that.
Although he won’t be drawn on the subject of the coalition, Brown comments on what he feels are “the wrong policies of the new government”. These policies will impact on some of the “great services” introduced by Labour, such as Sure Start, new schools and hospitals, as well as extended university and apprenticeship places.
Perhaps the most pertinent point is Brown’s unhesitating choice of his proudest moment:
I don’t think people yet understand how near the most sophisticated financial system in the world was to collapse, and I think that I understood what was happening. Look, for most people, the last two years have not been anything like what people portrayed in the 1930s, but the financial collapse was originally as big as the 1930s, and so the fact that we managed to steer the economy, and prevent massive unemployment, and prevent high levels of mortgage repossession, and the fact that we got worldwide action through the G20 to do that, I think when people actually look at it in history . . .
Today, Simon & Schuster confirmed that Brown has written a book on the financial crisis, to be published in November. All the proceeds will go to charity. According to the publisher, it will offer “insight into the events that led to the fiscal downward spiral and the reactions of world leaders as they took steps to avoid further disaster”, as well as recommendations for coping with the next stage of globalisation.
Brown emphasises in the interview that there will be no memoir, saying he is “more interested in writing about other people, or other issues”, but it looks like he is taking steps to record his position and secure that place in history. Let’s just hope WikiLeaks doesn’t have anything up its sleeve for November.
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