For reasons now lost to me, I read Gordon Brown’s previous book, Beyond the Crash, in which he revealed precisely nothing about himself, except for that fascinating quirk of the unusual mind. He’d say a big thing with no explanation at all (“that’s what an economy is for, to create jobs”), then explain a small, obvious thing at the most tremendous length. Imagine the surprise, therefore, to find his latest work, My Life, Our Times, so studded with news. Here’s what we have learned so far:
Jeremy Corbyn – repeat, Jeremy, and not Peter Mandelson or David Cameron – was the real culprit in the failure of the remain campaign. “A few days before the referendum, David Cameron phoned me … the call started well,” he writes. (See what I mean about the over-explaining?) Cameron wanted all living former prime ministers, on a stage, fighting to stay in the EU. Brown demurred on the basis that it would look like “an establishment stitch-up” and “perceived as the agenda of the elites”. Instead, he wanted all living former Labour leaders on a stage together, which Jezza refused to go along with for, one presumes, the same reason. But never mind that. This is the most concrete evidence yet of Corbyn’s halfheartedness.
Brown was never happy with “touchy-feely” politics. It was a debate at the time, whether his smile was odd because of a rugby accident in his youth, or whether he was just unaccustomed to smiling. We should have brooked the possibility that it was both.
His retina was torn in two places and he feared for his eyesight. This is interesting mainly in what it says about politics: he strenuously denied having anything wrong with him that wasn’t “routine” at the time. Public life simply cannot cope with ordinary misfortune, without recasting it as weakness.
The failure to remake the financial system, after the crash, weighs heavily on him. Not exactly that he wasn’t punitive enough to the big players, though that has been amplified here. Rather, that he allowed the Tories to present it, farcically, as the result of Labour’s overspending, the consequences of which will live on for a depressingly long time.
He still really hates Tony Blair. No, but really – did you hear what the guy did in Granita? Did you, though?
