Brown: relishing the battle for hearts and minds

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Gordon Brown has given an interview to the Independent, in which he talks about being in “fighting mode” for the election ahead. The paper says you are left “less with the sense of the walking dead, and more with that of a missionary relishing the imminent battle for hearts and minds after a long phoney war.”

Speaking about his conversation with Piers Morgan a week ago, Brown says:

“Celebrity? Celebrity is when you walk into a room, listen to what people want to hear, and then present yourself in a way you think people will want. Character is being prepared to go into the room and say: ‘Look, this is what I believe in. This is what I’m for. This is why I’m against what some of you are saying.’ And facing the consequences.

“I want people to understand what we’re trying to achieve. I cannot allow myself simply to be presented by one or two newspaper groups, so I will take my campaign into the country in every possible way: the internet, television, public meetings. And, in the end, it will be the people’s verdict…”

And talking about Labour’s campaign message, he says:

“We’ve gone through a very deep global financial recession which has affected every country, and we’ve had this additional challenge in Britain because of what happened over MPs’ expenses. So, at one and the same time, people were seeing their own living standards affected by the recession and rightly complaining that some MPs were acting not in the public interest but in their self-interest. It’s hardly surprising that over that period people are waiting to see whether the Government can deliver the political change necessary, but also take us through, and out of, the recession.

“I think people have suspended their judgement for a general election until they were able to see what had happened with our policies. “For most of the last two years, it’s been a referendum on the Government, and nobody has thought of it as a choice. Now people are seeing it as a choice, and they are seeing it not as the Conservatives want it to be: a choice about small things, but a choice about big issues, about our future. People are taking a look at the Conservatives and are not quite sure what they’re seeing – they’re beginning to see through them. The Tory party want to appear centre-ground, middle-of-the-road and pro-public services, but every time they have to declare a policy or are forced back on the defensive, to say what they really believe, they expose themselves as right wing.”

Read the full interview with Gordon Brown here.