November 12: Brown's sensitive side
Comments |
I’ve often heard people complain that
Gordon Brown is rather robotic and lacks the kind
of charisma and charm that Tony Blair was able to turn on like a
tap.
I’ve also heard it said that when you meet him
in person and when he engages with the public in more intimate
surroundings, he’s the opposite.
I’ve just finished chairing a public question
and answer session with Gordon Brown in Maidstone and I think both
are, in a sense, true.
Before an audience of about 50 people in
Maidstone’s Corn Exchange, the PM was grilled on issues ranging
from – inevitably – Afghanistan; bonuses to Ministry of Defence
officials (he’s launched an inquiry); why Rose Gibb, the former
chief executive of the Maidstone NHS Trust was paid so much in her
severance deal (“big pay offs are unacceptable”) and whether
maternity services should move out of Maidstone.
He also spoke about immigration and asylum,
expressing some strong views about immigrants who committed crimes
forfeiting their right to stay in the country.
Read more about Gordon Brown's visit
here>>>
In the aftermath of the furore over his letter
to the mother whose son was killed in Afghanistan, there was an
interesting exchange with Nina Babington Browne, who lost her son
in Afghanistan.
Mrs Babington Browne, from Maidstone. made a
point of emphasising her thanks for the personal hand written
letter she received from the PM about her son, Ben, who died on
duty in July.
The PM gave a perfectly pitched,
sensitive reply which was about as far removed from the diffident,
slightly uncomfortable persona that he is sometimes portrayed as
having.
I suppose you could say that after a
week dominated by torrid headlines about the other letter he wrote,
he was always going to be more measured about dealing with another
grieving mother.
He’s undoubtedly a politician who
takes things incredibly seriously – when I asked him whether
enduring constant hostile publicity and relentless criticism made
him think of just chucking in the towel, he fell back on talking
about his sense of civic duty and determination to give something
back.
But the way he responded to Mrs
Babington Browne showed a side of him that the tabloids would have
you believe he was incapable of.
Thursday, November 12 2009
The KM Group does not moderate comments.
Please click here for our house rules.