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Original poster

Gordon Brown

107 replies

Higgledyhouse · 14/10/2013 23:29

I'm just watching a re-run of Gordon Brown on Piers Morgan from the time he was PM. Now I'm not a particularly political person but I always liked Gordon Brown, I mean the person he is and watching this again tonight has made me sad that we lost him as our leader...... Sarah Brown too, just really nice people. Anyone else feel the same?

OP posts:
daisychain01 · 15/10/2013 04:32

Apart from plundering UK pensions, and selling UK gold at bargain prices, he was a jolly nice chap.

In private, yes a nice man, with a lovely family and children, but I dont think being a nice family man is necessarily the only measuring stick he himself would want to be judged by, or anyone in politics. And he made some appalling decisions that I think even he must cringe at.

It shows life is a bummer, he spent years waiting for 'Tone' to give up the prime Ministership, then when he took power the world went into the Global Recession meltdown. Poor bloke!

failingbadly · 15/10/2013 05:17

I like him too. And his wife. I had dinner with them once and they were extremely nice, sharp, genuine.

ifink · 15/10/2013 05:24

there are people here who loved him and miss him as leader??? Confused

the man who practically bankrupted your country (sold all your gold at rock bottom prices and then realised there was NOTHING left when the banks ran out of money)???? really?? still miss him? - oh thats right it was a global financial crisis....nothing to do with him Hmm

PrimalLass · 15/10/2013 06:34

She seems nice. He is our MP and their kids did a class at the same place as my DD.

NicholasTeakozy · 15/10/2013 06:35

This is the man who caused most of the problems that we are having now

Not quite. The problems we are having now were caused by financial institutions packaging debts they knew were dodgy as good and selling them on. Much of what we're going through now could've been shortened if we'd applied capitalism to those same financial institutions.

'I will eliminate boom and bust' - err, yes - we won't have a bust - we'll have an economic meltdown instead

Sticking to the neoliberal version of capitalism, as we are doing, will lead inevitably to more misery for the many for the enrichment of the few. That was his mistake, sticking largely to the policies of the preivous 20 years.

Sell the country's gold at rock bottom prices

He did that based on the advice of a treasury advisor, a guy who worked for Goldman Sachs. He sold 400 tonnes of gold. Which is less than the current government has sold in an attempt to keep the price of gold down. Compare the BofEs own balance sheet, they are holding approximately 1300 ounces less gold now than last year.

Build an economy based on house price growth

So a policy that was wrong when Brown was in charge is fine now that Camerwrong and Gidiot are? That's their idea to raise our GDP and give the illusion we are out of recession. That's all they've got.

Seriously, if you think what the ConDems are doing has anything to do with capitalism you are deluded. Capitalism would allow the banks to fail, and we are bailing them out and weakening our currency with quantitative easing. QE was designed to get the banks lending again. That worked well, as all they've done with the 'money' is loan it back to government and pay massive bonuses.

nameuschangeus · 15/10/2013 06:37

Bloody hells bells Hmm

niceguy2 · 15/10/2013 08:25

Oh god here we go. The ultra left now arrive blaming the fact we have a gigantic budget deficit (and will continue to do so for years to come) on someone else.

New Labour arrived on the scene with a budget surplus. They overspent plain & simple and the problem was compounded by the global crisis yes. But they are responsible for the government's spending.

With regards to the gold I don't care who he got his 'advice' from. As Chancellor he was ultimately responsible.

Nick, I think you need to learn the lesson i've taught my kids. Sometimes things may not be your fault....but you are responsible.

Sure, we can't pin all the blame of our economic woes on Gordon. But as chancellor then PM he certainly is responsible. Bad advice given by employees? Tough shit. You as their boss are still responsible.

My kids get that now. Maybe you should too?

nennypops · 15/10/2013 08:30

Have people not noticed that it is three and a half years since Brown left power? There comes a time when the Conservatives have to accept responsibility for what they have done during that period, including the stifling of growth and the double dip recession. And that's before you start looking at the utter, steaming disgrace that is their social policy.

PetiteRaleuse · 15/10/2013 08:32

I like him. Abroad he is well respected for what he did. I never quite got the hatred for him in the UK. He's far more honest, genuine and knowledgeable than David Cameron or Tony Blair.

gordyslovesheep · 15/10/2013 09:10

Nicholas is spot on. I liked him a lot

Tweasels · 15/10/2013 09:23

Excellent post NicholasTeakozy

The right believe what they want to believe, no point letting the facts get in the way.

mrsjay · 15/10/2013 09:25

But she was bigoted fairisle Personally I thought she was a right gobby caaw. Only he shouldn't have said it out loud

you are right and he as just caught moaning about her just because she was a labour voter doesn't mean he had to agree with her stupid rant

niceguy2 · 15/10/2013 09:31

The one thing I did notice very early on when Labour came to power was that when there was good news, GB was there shouting it loud & proud.

When there was only bad news, he was noticeably absent. As chancellor you can just about get away with that. As PM....not so much. And unfortunately there wasn't much good news left by the time he came to power.

PM's have to show good leadership skills, be good consensus builders, excellent people skills and even better at public speaking. Unfortunately these were not GB's strong points.

It's like at work, I'm a good techie. Doesn't mean I'd make a good manager.

AKAK81 · 15/10/2013 09:35

He's an utter utter cunt. I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire.

mrsjay · 15/10/2013 09:37

Hair enough AK say what you feel dont hold back now !

mrsjay · 15/10/2013 09:37

Fair*

noblegiraffe · 15/10/2013 09:38

He didn't surround himself with nice men, and they didn't do nice things to people who crossed them.

lyndie · 15/10/2013 09:40

I think he did the best he could considering the global economic crisis which was not his doing! Think others would have made an even bigger mess of it.

Piffyonarock · 15/10/2013 09:44

I also shed tears when he left No 10. Best leader we've had and a great, great man.

ProfondoRosso · 15/10/2013 09:44

I like him. No, he wasn't the best PM or Chancellor but he is a good politician and, I believe, a well intentioned, thoughtful man. I reckon he is better suited to (and hopefully happier) concentrating on his own constituency and how can help people there than he is to running the country.

The first time I ever saw his sons was when he left Downing St. I thought it was wise and decent for
him and Sarah to keep them out of the public eye.

Oh, and I would have called the woman in Rochdale a bigot too.

fairisleknitter · 15/10/2013 09:45

No if he didn't agree with her points he could have resisted the urge to patronise her to her face and slag her off afterwards behind her back and instead countered her arguments.

I don't believe her points were stupid, they represented the views of many people in areas where full employment hasn't existed for a generation and where the prospects of getting any job let alone maintaining pay and conditions were worsening.

hermioneweasley · 15/10/2013 09:52

As chancellor he over spent (presumably) thinking that the economy would be buoyant forever, which is pretty naive. His government's regulators totally failed to see what the banks were up to in terms of debt, and he positively encouraged high financial reward in banking because of the tax levied on bonuses.

So, he was an appalling chancellor and didn't seem to achieve anything as PM.

He may well be a lovely man. That is wholly irrelevant to his ability to lead a major world economy.

Dobbiesmum · 15/10/2013 09:53

I wouldn't have trusted the man with a fiver out of my purse when he was Chancellor but he came over very well on Piers Morgan last night. I can thoroughly believe that many people find him charming in person, and Sarah looks like such a lovely woman, it's so nice to see an obvious genuine love and respect between two people. It's the same with David and Samantha Cameron, it's obviously very real.
Shit PM though...

LunaticFringe · 15/10/2013 09:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

fairisleknitter · 15/10/2013 10:02

It was shocking to the (more trusting) old Labour voters in their heartlands and showed up how much the party that had been created by their grandparents now holds them in contempt.

But no it's not shocking to the cynics amongst us.

And I'm afraid it stops me joining in the praise for his character.

However he seems a great family man and sponsor of charities so good on him for that.

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