Kathryn's Thoughts on Gordon Brown

There is this concept in a lot of Greek mythology and other literary works throughout history of a doomed hero. One who tries his hardest to fight against what the cards deal him and yet cannot. Often, it is this attempt in and of itself that leads to or accelerates their downfall. I feel that in many ways, this describes Gordon Brown, who today resigned as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party. The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have formed a coalition and David Cameron took office as Prime Minister earlier tonight. This is not an attempt to defend or condemn Gordon Brown’s policies but instead my attempt to explain why I have and still do admire him.

To begin with, let me give you some details about James Gordon Brown that I feel are important to our story. He started the University of Edinburgh at the age of 16 (interestingly, he is one of only five Prime Ministers to not go to Cambridge or Oxford) and went on to get a PhD there as well. This man is very clearly not dumb.

During his first term in University, he suffered a retinal detachment in his left eye after a rugby game. Four surgeries later, it was removed. When he experienced similar symptoms in his right eye a year later it was only a highly experimental surgery that managed to save some of his sight, which has been apparently deteriorating in the past years and he still has to be concerned about further trauma that could cause the retina in his right eye to become fully attached. This means that he can only read very large print, something that can severely impact your ability to do something like read notes during debates in Parliament or Prime Minister’s Question or in attempts to write hand written letters to the families of each military member killed in service (which he did. Last year, there was controversy after he may have spelled a name James instead of Janes. The news did suggest this might have been due to a combination of his poor eyesight and naturally sloppy handwriting). I suspect this means he has to hold a lot more information in his head than a normal person would in order to prepare for things like debates or PMQs. I also admire that he doesn’t really bring it up. In fact, there were many British people who did not realize he had a glass eye until well after he became Prime Minister.

He lost his first race for Parliament (something that is not uncommon. It is relatively normal for candidates to be placed in unwinnable seats to sort of pay their dues before they can move to seats where they have more of a chance). In 1983 he won his seat in Dunfermline East (which would later become Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath). Labour was in opposition at the time, and had been since 1979. It was at the height of the Thatcher era and would take another 14 years for them to regain power. He served in the shadow cabinet (opposition leadership) until he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1997.

In 1994 the leader of the Labour party died unexpectedly. Even though he was perhaps the more qualified candidate, it is widely believed that, at a meeting in the Granita restaurant in London, Brown agreed that he would not stand for the leadership and would instead support Tony Blair who it was thought could help bring in new Labour voters. In exchange, Brown was allegedly given greater control over Labour’s economic policies and an understanding that Blair would step down if Labour won a second term when Brown would be next. Blair denies that this explicit agreement took place but it is clear that Brown agreed to delay (if not give up completely) one of his lifelong ambitions for the good of his party and what he believed to be the good of his country.

His wife Sarah had their first child Jennifer, who was born prematurely, on December 28, 2001. Jennifer died 10 days later. In response, they set up the Jennifer Brown Research Fund to sponsor research into new healthcare techniques for premature babies. (For more information, including how to donate go to http://piggybankkids.org/our-projects/jennifer-brown-research-fund ). Five years later, their third child, James, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. David Cameron, the now Prime Minister of the UK, had a son Ohtahara syndrome—a combination of cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He died in 2009 at the age of 6. Gordon Brown canceled Prime Minister’s Questions that day and took the time to express his condolences. It was an interesting and intensely human moment, I thought, between two political opponents both affected by such a heartbreaking situation.

Within a month of him finally becoming Prime Minister in 2007, there was a terrorist attack in Glasgow airport, a new outbreak of foot and mouth disease, and a series of storms caused massive flooding in parts of the country. None of these could reasonably be construed to be his fault. He did face other problems where he was not necessarily blameless but also doesn’t deserve to be leveled with all of it for much of them either.

He was in many ways very opposite from Tony Blair, known for being dour and un-charismatic with an awkward smile and often being relatively frank in his speech. I for one do not mind. I would rather have someone who is smart than good looking or smooth talking –so focused on the sound bites and slogans that the message gets lost. Gordon Brown is by no means a perfect man—he is known to have a temper and there are definitely things he could have done better as Chancellor and then as Prime Minister—but he has many of the attributes I see to be important in a politician; brilliance, passion, and a genuine desire and drive to do what he believes to be best. I also greatly admire his perseverance despite all of the hardships and clearly bad luck he has suffered. These attributes are often forgotten or lost when people look at politics today but are amongst the reasons I choose to study it. I hope that Prime Minister Cameron will continue to uphold those values during his time in office. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

PS. Sorry this is so heavy. I'll try to do something funnier next.

(Note that information was taken from the BBC, the Labour Party, the Telegraph, Time Magazine)