Worth a second outing: perhaps Gordon Brown should have listened to his own warning?

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Worth a second outing: perhaps Gordon Brown should have listened to his own warning?

By Mark Pack | Fri 17th September 2010 - 10:28 am

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Welcome to a series where old posts are revived for a second outing for reasons such as their subject has become topical again, they have aged well but were first posted when the site’s readership was only a tenth or less of what it is currently or they got published and the site crashed, hiding the finest words of wisdom behind an incomprehensible error message. Today’s is a comment Gordon Brown made in 1997 that now, looking back after his Premiership, looks all too prescient about his own time at the top.

Speaking to Paddy Ashdown in 1997, Gordon Brown said:

“You have accused us of being a bunch of control freaks. Well in a way that’s what we have to be because we don’t have an identifiable aim which is ideologically based: because there’s no core idea to hold the party together in tough times we have to use discipline instead.”

Source: Ashdown Diaries, Volume 2, 2nd December 1997. (Hat tip: Hywel Morgan)

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2 Comments

Judith 17th Sep '10 - 2:25pm

Aah; that explains it.
John Ruddy 17th Sep '10 - 7:52pm

The weird thing is, it just doesnt sound like Gordon Brown-thats not how he talks, and thats now how he would say that. Which makes me think that Paddy Ashdowns diaries are as reliable as Tony Blairs….