Saturday, June 4, 2011

A Tale of Two Prime Ministers


Sarah and Gordon Brown and Their Boys
 It has been sickening to witness the personal abuse and personal attacks aimed at Gordon Brown rearing their ugly heads once again over these past few weeks. This kind of bullying would be bad enough under any circumstances but being led by the British Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, makes the whole issue an undignified unedifying spectacle which has unfortunately been played out on the world stage and has been an embarrassment to this country.

Mr Brown's "crime" this time was apparently a desire to become the new MD at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a position that many leading economists would happily endorse Mr Brown for. Nobel prize winners Paul Krugman and Chris Pissarides and professors of economics; Josef Stiglitz, David Blanchflower and not least Sir James Wolfensohn, the former president of the World Bank etc etc etc have all recommended Brown. However, Mr Brown's chances were scuppered by the appalling arrogant un-statesmanlike behaviour of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron no less, and his "buddy" George Osborne, who have once more put their petty personal political grievances not only before the future of this country but now the world's economy too - and this is not the first time they have behaved in this reprehensible way towards Mr Brown, this has become a nasty bullying habit of the two men, who really ought to know better.

It's Over
Gordon In Front of His Sons Paintings
The scuppering of Mr Brown's chances were absolutely nothing to do with his ability to do the job in hand, it is pure petty bullying and politicking from Cameron and Osborne, a hangover from the the years before they became this country's unelected PM and chancellor. Unfortunately, both Cameron and Osborne suffer from stunted economical growth and are politically retarded and have a vacuous cavity where their common sense should be. The pair's disdainful treatment of Mr Brown so openly on radio, TV and the press says far more about their contemptuous behaviour than it does anything at all about Mr Brown. Gordon as usual remained calm and dignified and silent in the face of this unnecessary, spiteful and vengeful attack. Brown as usual displayed all the attributes necessary for a prime minister, whereby David Cameron's attack of Gordon Brown was something that no other serving and non serving  British PM has done. Attributes that both Cameron and Osborne could learn much from, although I seriously despair that Cameron and Osborne would ever be able see that they have major personality flaws and that they are really not acting within the best interests of our country.

Cameron and Osborne have orchestrated a hate campaign and a personal vendetta against the former British prime minister, starting in the press a few years before the general election in May 2010 took place. Cameron and Osborne both realised that if they were to get anywhere at all they had to rubbish Brown and his remarkable achievements as chancellor (and there are a great many) and this is what they did, they set about putting together a dossier of lies and innuendos and then touted it around their right wing journalist friends, hawking it to editors in the right wing press, and to right wing TV news stations like Sky News and Fox news in the US. Cameron and Osborne enlisted the help of editors of red top papers at the Sun,  and News of the World to help them spread their false claims.

The owner of News International., Rupert Murdoch his son James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson (all the usual suspects) as well as other right wing newspapers then set out to systematically destroy a man personally and professionally for their own ends and aspirations, indulging in an unprecedented  systematic campaign of dirty tricks, lies, innuendo and abuse that has ever been waged against one particular prime minister in the history of this country. The campaign went from the sublime to often totally ridiculous, virtually everything in the country and the world that went wrong and Cameron and Osborne and the press found a way to blame Gordon Brown for it. It is an astonishing testament to the intellect and the tenacity and character of the man Gordon Brown who not only managed to withstand this daily torrent of personal abuse, lies and constant innuendo aimed at him every single day, month in and month out, year in and year out and yet still deal competently and efficiently with everything from terrorist attacks, to natural disasters ie worse floods for years, Icelandic volcanoes stranding our nationals abroad, foot and mouth, swine flu, avian flu, blur tongue disease in cattle etc etc and also the deepest global financial recession since the 1930s, that he managed to keep this country calm and steady, averting a banking crisis that could have seen people lose their homes, jobs, businesses, savings and pensions.

During the time Mr Brown was accused of all sorts and blamed entirely for the *GLOBAL* financial recession and the subsequent banking crisis, a crisis that hit many countries and *NOT* just the UK  came the general election, Cameron had everything going for him, the press, media etc and yet still Brown managed to prevent David Cameron from getting a majority in the 2010 general election, the majority Cameron so coveted and craved, and that of Brown is nothing short of remarkable.


This Picture Says It All
 We already had the best man for the job in situ but unfortunately on the back of three pathetic publicity orientated leadership debates, where Nick Clegg was presented as the "Messiah" and David Cameron apparently "walked on water" and the continuance of the most vindictive personal attacks in the press etc Brown lost the position of prime minister and with Brown went the hope of any  real, sustainable and lasting economic recovery for the country.

Never was there a more marked difference between why the two men Brown and Cameron wanted to  become prime minister. Gordon Brown wanted to become prime minister for altruistic reasons because he wanted to be in a position to help the people of this country and help those who would not normally have the chances of achieving their ambitions and aspirations and to help  the global economy and Africa etc. Cameron however, wanted to become PM of Britain for himself and for the power, influence and kudos that the position would afford him and Rupert Murdoch etal wanted Cameron, not because Murdoch was in awe of his capabilities, not because he thought he was the right man for the job, not because he respected Cameron, not because he thought that Cameron would make a good statesman, because it is well known that Murdoch does not like Cameron and thinks he is a political lightweight, but simply because he saw the chance for his company to get their hands on BSkyB unchallenged, which is probably what Cameron "promised" Murdoch in turn for Murdoch's support in his newspapers. Now we all know that this is exactly what Murdoch has more or less got and no doubt just a couple of years down the line, Murdoch will be in the forefront of the running for first dibs in the "sell off" of the BBC (something that is already underway) believe it or not, but do not be shocked when it happens.  Why else has Cameron shoe-horned his Tory mate Chris Patten into the Chairman's job at the BBC? Why else do you think he has Jeremy Hunt running the BBC down, why else do you think that Tory chancellor George Osborne has frozen the cost of the BBC license fee in the face of escalating inflation making it extremely hard for the BBC to continue producing the kind of quality programmes and broadcasting that it currently does?

Returning to Gordon Brown, I have no doubt at all that Brown could probably be difficult to work with, but so what? Is that really a reason to personally abuse the  man and spread vicious lies and engage in this despicable character assassination? I'm not making excuses for this kind of behaviour, but Brown has no more problems with this kind of thing than any other leader or boss of a huge corporation and apparently David Cameron himself is not shy of bullying people and ignoring people he deems to be beneath him and quite regularly lets off steam with foul mouthed rants at people, which is something Brown did not do and at least Brown was not afflicted by the dreadful harmful kind of arrogant ignorance that so afflicts and cripples David Cameron!

Much to Brown's credit since leaving office, he has not engaged in a self gratuitous "kiss and tell" type books that Thatcher,Major, Edwina Currie, Blair and Mandelson etc have written to swell their own personal bank balances and sod who they hurt and upset in the process, quite the opposite in fact, Brown has written a best selling book "Beyond The Crash" where he has tried to rationally work out what went wrong, where he talks about the banks and the financial industry and what we can all *COLLECTIVELY* do as nations to try and prevent such a crash happening again and true to his charitable character he has donated the proceeds of his book to charity just as he donates his fees for speaking engagements each and every time the man is booked to speak on economics the world over to packed audiences. Brown has knowledge, he has experience, he has the intellect, he has the vision, he has hope and he has "the plan" and is respected for his economical achievements and his tireless charitable work in Asia and Africa etc, which makes him literally the best applicant in the world to lead an improved, better more moralistic IMF under a Gordon Brown stewardship! Yet we are to be denied this just because of the overt politicking and petty ignorance and spite from much lesser mortals in Cameron and Osborne, both political and economical and characterless lightweights. Cameron and Osborne have blocked Brown's bid for the IMF  for one reason and one reason only, they know if they backed him for the IMF position (which they should certainly be doing) it would not resonate favourably with the lies they have been spreading about Brown's culpability during the *GLOBAL* economic crash, in short it would expose them for the shameless lies they know they have told and they fear it would harm their chances of being re-elected to government in Britain at the next general election. Such ostensible self interest and greed is very hard to comprehend of anyone in that supposedly entered politics for the "greater good", yet when it comes from the two men who occupy the highest governmental offices in the land it is even more astonishing and yet still the right wing press, the right wing TV news stations in the UK are just allowing this pair of political pudding heads to get away with their narrow minded despicable self interest politicking. Now not only is Cameron using the NHS as a political football and all the grave problems that this entails for our country, he shows he thinks nothing of using this country's economy and the future of each and everyone of us as a political football too just as long as it satisfies his political ends.

How on earth did Britain end up with such an unmitigated wanker as David Cameron as a prime minister?

Whitehall is awash with tales about the awful and alarming incompetent buffoonery of David Cameron, who  has shown himself to have the distinct inability to read and understand the minutiae of detail of his own government's policies, in fact, such is his inability to take such matters on board he has to have his policy read for him by a "close" adviser and then explained back to him in easy to understand sentences, which has in turn makes him flustered and ill prepared and has led him to make the most alarming errors in PMQs in the Commons leading to him making personal attacks on opposing MPs, which has led to utter confusion about numerous Tory policies often resulting in major Conservative Government u-turns.  This of course is in complete contrast to Brown, who has the kind of photographic brain and laser intellect that enables him to read and absorb policy and act quickly in the face of sudden major volatile events and sudden major volatile global issues quickly and accurately, all the credentials which Gordon Brown displayed when he kept Britian and the world's financial markets stable during terrorist attacks such as 9/11 and 7/7 and Bali etc. Having this kind of brain allowed Brown to respond in the best interests of this country and other countries, which is another reason which makes him the ideal candidate to become MD at the IMF.

Comparing the intellects of David Cameron and Gordon Brown is virtually impossible, Cameron is of l average intelligence and limited intellect, in fact without birth privilege making it possible for him to attend Eton etc, it is seriously doubtful if he would ever have made a low ranking minister in any Tory government. Cameron is driven by self interest, greed and kudos of position and the lust for power, influence and all the rest of it, one only has to look at the way he sucked up to President Obama recently, stalking Obama with his puppy dog star struck eyes and "high fiving" him. His media advisers organising flipping burgers on a state visit all done to give Cameron maximum coverage and publicity. Cameron wants all the trappings of being PM  and he desperately wants to stay being PM but unfortunately he has absolutely no idea whatsoever of how to do the job and Gordon Brown is the living walking antithesis of Cameron! There could not be a more striking contrast between two prime ministers. Gordon Brown is charitable it is in he genetics, t is what maketh the man unlike Cameron he doesn't just "talk the talk, he walks the walk and unot not like Cameron when fashion or political advantage dictates it, brown does it because he genuinely wants to help others, which is why he when he was PM, he used to get up an hour early at 05.00 hrs to write his book about the death of his baby daughter Jennifer to try and bring comfort to others through his writing and to try and do something real and lasting as a tribute to his daughter and as ever all proceeds from that book and indeed from any book Brown has every written have been donated to charity. Gordon Brown is a truly philanthropic man, for Brown, it has ALWAYS been "not what his country can do for him"  but MORE "what he can do for his country". When we have a man like this and  that we can think absolutely nothing of treating him so badly is one of the things that I find  is not only deeply upsetting but also profoundly disturbing that my fellow countryfolk could treat a person like Brown so appallingly. It comes from folk who have fallen "hook, line and sinker" for lies manufactured by David Cameron and George Osborne and which have been spread like blowflies on a rotting corpse by Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, Andy Coulson, Rebekah Brooks etc in this country's right wing press, that we can just stand by and allow this kind of deeply offensive blatant bullying, is just embarrassing and shameful. I know politics is a rough game but this kind of thing should be beyond even the narcissistic personality of David Cameron, sadly however, it is not.

As Cameron relaunches his failed "Big Society" for the 5th time no one has mentioned the absolute delicious irony of it all.  Brown is everything and more that any big society represents, Brown has been giving of his time all through the 13 years of labour governments, he gave freely of his time when he was prime minister, as has his lovely wife Sarah, a more decent honest charitable philanthropic couple we could not have had in Downing street than the Browns, or indeed wished for.

The Look On Obama's Face says It All
The stark parallels that can be drawn between the Browns and the Camerons are obvious. Samantha Cameron allows herself to be photographed in her expensive designer bikini lapping up the sun and sea while on their second  holiday abroad since Easter with hubby Dave, while folks back home are in despair and struggle to keep their jobs, their businesses, their homes and worry how to keep their children fed, clothed and looked after under the unfair weight place upon them by Cameron and Osborne's insane austerity measures. Forcing ordinary folk to pay back for the greed of the bankers, forcing the hardest hit, the disabled, the young and elderly to pay by driving down their living standards is not only unnecessary, it is also immoral, especially when as people are slowly coming to realise these are all ideological cuts that would have happened under the Tories, deficit or no deficit. No doubt these struggling families would love to take their children on a holiday to a sun soaked island abroad however, they should have no fear and be comforted by the fact that good old Dave and Sam went on a jet provided by a Tory "doning" company a no frills airline Easy Jet, which is meant o to reassure us all, 'cos "we're all in this together" - right? Apparently when Dave and Sam were due to jet off to an exclusive luxury holiday in Thailand last Christmas but at the last minute Dave got cold feet and cancelled because he had to be told this would not go down in the country too well in these times of Tory imposed austerity, Samantha Cameron went into one, shouting crying and complaining that it is just not fair and why should she suffer too?  Sam's charitable donations of her time include getting her staff to lay on a street party while she was off attending the royal wedding and putting on a pinny with Michelle Obama for a photo shoot to serve salad made by catering staff up to soldiers in the garden of number 10, while Cameron and Obama pretended to flip burgers that had also been prepared by specialist catering staff.

The Browns however were completely different, contrast Sarah Brown with Samantha Cameron.  Kevin Healey was invited to meet Sarah Brown at No 10 at a reception celebrated the work of charities in the Autism Sector, and discuss ways on how the charity sector can work together to achieve common aim. Kevin Healey is chairman of SAAS, and councilor for the National Autistic Society (NAS) said he was shocked to receive the email form number 10 and said that he knew Sarah Brown is involved in a lot of charity work across the UK and that assumed she will focus on her experience of the charitable work that she does and the role that the third sector can play, hopefully they can exchange ideas. Sarah Brown is also the Founder and President of PiggyBankKids, Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. Amongst other charitable works.

And this from the Global Business Coalition (GBC):

Former Prime Minister and Current Member of Parliament,
United Kingdom


Born in Scotland, Gordon Brown first joined the British Parliament as an MP in the 1983 General Election and shared his first office in the House of Commons with Tony Blair. As Chancellor of the Exchequer under Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown presided over the longest ever period of growth. He also made the Bank of England independent and delivered an agreement at the Gleneagles Summit in 2005 to support the world’s poorest countries and tackle climate change. His passion for global justice was reflected in his negotiation of debt cancellation for the world’s poorest nations and the tripling of the development budget.
Mr. Brown served as Prime Minister from 2007 when Tony Blair left office until 2010. During his time as Prime Minister he oversaw changes such as the introduction of neighborhood policing in every area, a legally-enforceable right to early cancer screening and treatment and the world’s first ever Climate Change Act, which came into force in autumn 2008. In April 2009, he hosted the G20 Summit in London where world leaders committed to make an additional $1.1 trillion available to help the world economy through the financial crisis and restore credit, growth and jobs.  Brown has authored several books, including John Smith: Life and Soul of the Party (1994), Courage (2003) and Britain's Everyday Heroes (2007).


''Gordon will continue his long association with international efforts to get every child in school by collaborating with Queen Rania of Jordan on education goals globally and from today he is joining the Global Campaign for Education's High Level Panel on Education for All as a convener.

If David Cameron is really serious about his big society he could do no better than model his failing policy on Gordon and Sarah Brown, (and the magnitude of truly charitable people across this country - our unsung heroes) who it seems were practicing the "Big Society" long before one of David Cameron's spin doctors persuaded Cameron it would be good for his image. Our voluntary sector like every other sector is being targeted with crippling cuts that are putting the very organisations that Cameron says he wants, in serious jeopardy. When Gordon and Sarah Brown talk about charity and doing voluntary work they mean they get involved and when he was PM Brown made the funds available, he was also responsible for the cancellation of some of the debt to poorer countries. When David Cameron talks about the "big society" it is just that, talk, sheer opportunistic clap trap that has no meaning, if it did and Cameron was serious, he would have known that this country *ALREADY* has a big society in action and when Cameron talks about his vision for the big society, he means he is using that as a cover for his vicious cruel and brutal cuts that are harming the very people and the very organisations that the big society is for. What is so charitable about that?

I have a great respect for our former PM Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah, but more importantly so does thousands of people across the rest of the world.
I have no respect for David and Samantha Cameron. David Cameron, is a shallow greedy power driven politically opportunistic man of average intelligence and once he is gone from Downing street he will be easily forgotten, David? David who? Not so Gordon Brown a towering intellect and a genuine person driven by the need to help others.

Never has the saying "You don't know what you've got until its gone" ring more true than it does in the case of Gordon and Sarah Brown. Yet we in this country see nothing wrong in personally abusing and attacking them.

More On:  Sarah and Gordon Brown

Dismayed Brown Refuses to respond to attack.

Global Campaign for Education's High Level Panel

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