A lot of details seem to be spilling out regarding the final days of the last Labour government. One of Gordon Brown's last acts, it seems, was to give David Cameron a paycut - a politically childish act of the highest order. The salary of the Prime Minister was reduced from £194,000 to £150,000 - just £5,480 more than every other cabinet minister, and indeed the Leader of the Opposition who is paid an official salary for his position. As the Conservatives had pledged paycuts for ministers in their manifesto, the salary was then reduced further to its present level of £142,500, lower than David Cameron's former salary as opposition leader. Still, Conservative PMs have a good history of cutting their cloth: Margaret Thatcher only drew the salary of an ordinary cabinet minister in a vain attempt to encourage others to take lower salaries in order to save jobs and fight inflation.
Today we discover, via Lord Mandelson's soon-t0-be-released memoirs, that Nick Clegg informed the former Prime Minister to his face that he could no longer continue in office should any sort of coalition deal be considered. It was Nick Clegg's position that to retain Gordon Brown following an election defeat would have been unacceptable to the British public. Tony Blair, of all people, apparently supported this position in private discussions with Brown.
In true fashion, the former Prime Minister did not give a response to Mr Clegg, but soon after hopped in this car and went off to resign. He is quoted by Lord Mandelson as saying "I have been humiliated enough".
This particular line sums up for me the problem with Gordon Brown's premiership: that he was always on the defensive. He was portrayed as doing little more than begging Tony Blair to pass the job on to him in the later days, and when he received it the suggested General Election to add a little legitimacy to his appointment was taken firmly off the agenda. Since then, virtually every innovation and change contained the faint whiff of compromise, of attempting to appeal to someone: when he decided to smile more on camera, it was perceived as a weak act quite simply because he felt he had to. Whether he did in reality or not, Gordon Brown seemed to lack courage in his convictions and even the most basic courage to display his own personality; in a Nixonesque manner, he seemed incapable of realising that he was now in the highest office in the land, that he could enjoy having satisfied his ambition. All slightly ironic for a man who authored a book on the subject of courage a mere few years earlier: one supposes his fascination with the subject must have been that of a detached observer.
I do not seek to criticise the former PM unduly; I certainly think he was a fine and decent man, yet it seem to me that he failed to ever truly become 'Prime Ministerial material'. Following the election, his departure was dignified: now, it seems, he has disappeared into obscurity. One cannot help but wonder what comes next for a man who cannot help but see himself as having failed at a job he was never quite suited to.
Today we discover, via Lord Mandelson's soon-t0-be-released memoirs, that Nick Clegg informed the former Prime Minister to his face that he could no longer continue in office should any sort of coalition deal be considered. It was Nick Clegg's position that to retain Gordon Brown following an election defeat would have been unacceptable to the British public. Tony Blair, of all people, apparently supported this position in private discussions with Brown.
In true fashion, the former Prime Minister did not give a response to Mr Clegg, but soon after hopped in this car and went off to resign. He is quoted by Lord Mandelson as saying "I have been humiliated enough".
This particular line sums up for me the problem with Gordon Brown's premiership: that he was always on the defensive. He was portrayed as doing little more than begging Tony Blair to pass the job on to him in the later days, and when he received it the suggested General Election to add a little legitimacy to his appointment was taken firmly off the agenda. Since then, virtually every innovation and change contained the faint whiff of compromise, of attempting to appeal to someone: when he decided to smile more on camera, it was perceived as a weak act quite simply because he felt he had to. Whether he did in reality or not, Gordon Brown seemed to lack courage in his convictions and even the most basic courage to display his own personality; in a Nixonesque manner, he seemed incapable of realising that he was now in the highest office in the land, that he could enjoy having satisfied his ambition. All slightly ironic for a man who authored a book on the subject of courage a mere few years earlier: one supposes his fascination with the subject must have been that of a detached observer.
I do not seek to criticise the former PM unduly; I certainly think he was a fine and decent man, yet it seem to me that he failed to ever truly become 'Prime Ministerial material'. Following the election, his departure was dignified: now, it seems, he has disappeared into obscurity. One cannot help but wonder what comes next for a man who cannot help but see himself as having failed at a job he was never quite suited to.
