I personally beleive Gorden Brown is a decent, principled man who was driven by his principles and still is. He was handed a poisoned chalice by the time he became PM. The last Labour government did actually do lots of very good things, which have been over shadowed by Tony Blair and his involvement in the Iraq War and its legacy. There was also outgoing 'joke' made about there being no money left- which was a gift to the incoming government and still gets trotted out as fact.
I also believe Keir Starmer is actually a decent man, motivated by principles, rather than a desire to be in power. However, his constant need to try and appease all voters and subsequent u-turns as a result have been really damaging to the party. This also detracts from any positive changes that have been made in the short term they have been in power against the backdrop of what they have inherited.
The world has also changed a lot. The electorate now want 'a character' which Starmer is not (neither was Brown). I personally would rather grown-ups are in charge but the last few decades have shown that both in the UK and abroad, populist, dog-whistle politics wins votes. The standards the current government are being held to by the (largely) right wing press are completely different to those of the last government over three terms and people seem to have short memories.
Arguably this started with Thatcher, who successfully changed the mindset of the country from 'we' to 'me' with her policies, which in lots of ways have been incredibly harmful, but there is no going back. Many people benefitted in the short term, but in the longer term we are still feeling the impact (eg privitisation of utilities, council housing being sold off). Tory policy will always favour the rich, the most recent and stiking example was the contracts handed out to their mates during covid. Anyone who works within the NHS or social care knows that there has been a lot of privitisation through the back door and in order to meet statutory requirements, there is no choice but to use these services which takes money away from the frontline. There are a lot of investors making a huge amount of money from our most vulnerable.
As a country we want everything to work but no one wants to fund it through taxation and everyone has an argument why they should not pay more (businesses and individuals). Interestingly, people often cite Scandinavian countries as places that function and where they would like to live. However, they function due to an acceptance that this requires high taxation but the benefits this brings to society means people are more accepting. So both parents working and contributing is the norm- almost a societal duty, but in return there is very cheap and capped child care, social care provision for older people, maternity and paternity leave etc. In the mists of time, Sweden based their welfare model on our welfare state which is arguably much easier to do with a much smaller population.
I know this has turned into an essay, and I am sure many people with disagree with it! However, our model of politics is very much based on the short-term and therefore change is hard to sustain. I was speaking to someone today about the abolition of Sure Start, and how incredibly determental this has been to the most vulnerable in our society. The same with austerity, the majority of studies show that this was detrimental to society as a whole, short sighted and has has had a far reaching impact way beyond those directly effected. There is a strong argument that the Brexit vote was really an anti-austerity vote, but I probably should not go into that as well! Unfortunately, the self-serving and arrogant arsehole who led us to this mess did not think to stick it on the side of a bus. He then quickly disappeared when he realised it back-fired, no accountability.
To bring it back to Gordon Brown, he understands this and has continued to advocate for the most vulnerable. He continued to act as an MP for his constituency until 2015, and my family in that area report he was well liked and a good MP. He continues to be a fierce advocate against child poverty, education for all and a sustained improvement in living for the most vulnerable. He was instrumental to the most popular and significant changes to address inequality when in government, such as a minimum wage, tax credits for the low paid and a massive investment in public services. He is credited with huge cuts in pensioner and child poverty at the time. Others may not agree that this was a good thing, but as one of the wealthiest nations in the world in the 21st century- I consider this should be a given within a functioning society.