It is safe to say I am not Gordon Brown’s biggest fan, he had a personality totally unsuited to politics. In all my years working as a journalist I must have met him on a dozen occasions and he could barely bring himself to be civil.
Strangely I didn’t mind so much, I always distrusted the politicians who were charming to everyone, but Gordon was charming to no-one. However leaving that aside he has proved himself to have real character and intelligence.
He was the first to grasp the immense dangers of the credit crunch and react intelligently. Without his push to coordinate an international Western response things would have got far worse.
Then since leaving frontline politics he has given all his considerable earnings to charity, putting every other instant millionaire ex PM to shame.
On Covid he has also been totally right, you don’t solve a global pandemic by only vaccinating westerners and leaving the rest of the world to suffer. Because funnily enough Covid mutates fastest in places with the fewest vaccinations and the poorest people.
He has been warning about this for months, no one listened and once again he was right. We are all going to suffer as a result.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
Politicians don't have to be likeable, we need to be able to trust them to make big decisions with intelligence and integrity. Johnson wants to be adored and lacks the qualities we need. I'd rather have Brown any day!
Yes but he was positively misanthropic- and normally not that good at decisions. But he got big calls right.