Does *anyone* like Gordon Brown?

[edam]

His own party is (justifiably) plotting against him. The mass of voters seem to be, putting it charitably, unimpressed. Is there anyone left who actually likes our PM?

Just wondering if there are any MNers who would care to defend him...

I met him at my boss's memorial where he gave a very moving speech. He seemed admirable at that event. And he's clearly clever (doesn't necessarily mean one always makes good judgments, though). Have always been suspicious of this idea that he represented the true soul of Labour, though, as the architect of privatisation and cuddling up to big business by selling out ordinary people.

[tortoiseSHELL]

I think he spent so long wanting the top job that he forgot what he wanted to DO. And he's not doing ANYTHING imo - wasting time on the 42 (or whatever it was) days detention, when what is actually affecting people is food/fuel prices.

There are MANY areas he could address which would make life easier. He could stop the corrupt taxation on fuel (paying VAT not only on the fuel, but also on the duty - which is over half the cost of the 'price per litre') - we are being taxed on our tax. He could reform Council Taxes so that the councils couldn't hike the prices up cripplingly high, and then refuse to take our rubbish. He could abolish SATS after the debacle this summer, and have some sort of teacher assessment at the end of Y6 instead of these ridiculous formal exams.

He could encourage councils to have some decent public transport in place BEFORE they slap on congestion charges as an easy option. He could stop making facile suggestions about parenting, and help parents to go back to work by making childcare claimable on the tax form.

But he isn't doing any of this. Which is why he is doing a POOR job.

[Upwind]

Since I heard him claim as chancellor that there would be "no more boom and bust", I have thought him seriously deluded.

I think he means well, but somehow would rather even a sleazebag in power so long as they were more in tune with reality.

[Callisto]

I think his wife possibly still likes him, though that is debatable (she doesn't ever look as if she likes anything at all).

[Callisto]

Why did anyone think he would make a good leader in the first place though? How does 10 year of questionable monetary policy and petty power games equal any kind of training for leadership? One only has to look at how Brown operated whilst Chancellor to realise he would be hopelessly crap as PM. (I can't be the only person who saw through him though - surely?)

[PotPourri]

Errr, no one I know likes him

[Upwind]

Callisto - the media seemed to praise Brown highly as his policies made the credit bubble worse here than in most other countries. It was all about short term gain at the expense of sustainable economic growth - more and more borrowing of future wages e.g. in the forms of PFI and other PF.s, a credit explosion, 2nd mortgages rebranded "equity release", 125% mortgages, self-cert mortgages... A whole lot of spending on the never never.

But in real life most people I know still think that Brown was a great Chancellor because that is what the media pundits said for so long. Why did they not question his policies more? The cost of housing trebled, an utter disaster for young families, but the media insisted it was a good thing and only started bleating when the credit crunch began and house prices started dropping.

[Callisto]

Yes - it was all about housing wasn't it. I suppose I found it easier to be objective as we rent so all we saw was housing becoming more and more unattainable (esp here in the Cotswolds were a cardboard box on a street corner in Swindon currently costs £125,000). I also couldn't forgive him for selling our gold reserves at the bottom of the market against all advice. He probably wishes he'd held onto some of that bullion now - though I get the impression that he doesn't believe he can be wrong about anything and blames everything/one else for what is wrong.

[sfxmum]

I don't think it is specifically to do with Gordon Brown I just think the this government time is up.
quite sad really from my point of view, so many wasted opportunities so many worthless initiatives so much empty talk such a waste

[MintChocAddict]

I quite like him. I think he's a genuinely decent person who is morally sound, which is rare in the world of politics. As for Sarah Brown, I think she's just pretty down to earth and doesn't crave media attention. Personally I find that refreshing after Tony and the lovely Cherie.
I also think that he didn't stand a chance of succeeding as a result of the obvious anti-scottish hysteria whipped up by the tabloid press in England. (runs for the hills..... )

[Heated]

I think I'll like Gordon in about 5 years time when he isn't in office. I found to my surprise agreeing & being impressed with John Major on the Andrew Marr show a couple of weeks ago

[Callisto]

I agree about Sarah Brown, much better that the loathsome Cherie. But I have never seen her smile, she doesn't ever seem happy.

[MintChocAddict]

I think she's just uncomfortable with the attention. Unfortunate if you're the PM's wife....
Another good example though with John Major. Slaughtered by the press for being dull and grey. Didn't have a hope.
Was though when the Edwina Currie stuff came to light! Who'd have thought it?!
I genuinely feel that I'd rather have GB and JM any day (not literally ), than David Cameron (eurghhhh) or sincere, charismatic Tony B.

[solo]

Nope!

[DeeRiguer]

shrot answer: No, i dont think so
me no no never for many and myriad reasons

edam look up the Glasgow Easy byelection thread..
there are a few folks on that that do! sorry cant really do links

sarah seems awkward in the limelight, as does gordon imho
that breathing thing cant help him in public speaking

and the fecking hand signals, like all nulabour politicians argggghhhhhh

[Upwind]

Callisto, I think the history books will show the credit/house price bubble to be New Labour's most disastrous policy after Iraq. The PFI schemes and the bullion sale just show they really were thinking only of election periods and unconcerned about the longer term effects of their policies.

I think posters on MN are more concerned than most about the future because we want our DC to have the same chances in life that we did. Posters on non-parenting forums might be more grateful to New Labour for the splurge of the past few years.

[hannahsaunt]

Probably to everyone's surprise, I haven't actually voted for labour in recent elections because I'm not overly impressed with our local MP (and surely that's what should be voting for anyway...). But, I do genuinely like and respect GB for a multitude of reasons which I don't have time to do just now because I have a picnic to make and 3 children climbing the walls...however, I plan to return. I think he's fallible but decent. And I can't say I'm not enjoying my maternity leave, my right to part-time work, childcare vouchers, family credit etc etc.

[Divvy]

Even Barack Obama, made his choice today,by seeing Tony blair first...which I thought spoke more than words!

[2shoes]

I am sure he is a nice man in rl. but to me he is a pretendy prime minister and lacks something that a prime minister needs.

[alardi]

We liked GB as chancellor, too often has been comically sad disaster as PM though. Terribly mishandled many political things.

[purits]

It's irrelevent whether I like GB or not. I don't need him to be my best buddy, just a competent Prime Minister.

(btw, if we are listing his faults - what about his tax changes that wrecked the pension industry?)

[Upwind]

If his own party are plotting against him, who will they get to replace him?

Jack Straw is the only convincing candidate I can think of.

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[Highlander]

DH met him a couple of weeks ago and said he was seriously dull

[Jux]

I used to love him - he gave me money when dh had been using dosh as a weapon; the tax credits thing set me free! Now I feel sorry for him, because I think that his one big idea failed at the first hurdle and all his other plans depended upon it, so that since then he's just been firefighting. His fault for having no back up plan, but I still can't bring myself to hate him as he really did do me a big favour with those tax credits.

[ranting]

Well I like him simply because he isn't Tony Blair, I loathe all that cuddling up to the public, man of the people crap, however I do have issues with the way that he and his advisors have tried to protray him as a 'man of the people, cuddly up to the public' type. It's embarrasing to watch.

I do take issue with your 'architect of privatisation' statement though, as that was originally a Tory idea designed to pay back the moneyed backers who'd spent the cash to make them electable, it also had the added allure of ball breaking the unions. Any party who hopes to raise the cash to be considered electable has to appease the money men, it is a byproduct of our party political system.