Gordon on the X-factor, music, comedy, texting and embarrassing moments

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

The Prime Minister has given a quick-fire interview to ShortList.com, published this week, which skips through life in Number 10, the type of breakfast he eats, jogging, text abbreviations, sleep, stress, the X-Factor, the England and Scotland football teams, fatherhood, and some of the embarrassing things that happened to him during his youth — including inviting the local burglar into the Brown family home.

Some of the interesting snippets include:

Are you quite multimedia in your job these days?

Yeah, I’d say so. I think it’s all changing. We’ve got a Twitter account from Downing Street, people email in to us and we try to respond, and I’ve done quite a lot of internet question and answer sessions. I think people are beginning to realise that there’s more power in the hands of people to ask questions, to have an interactive service. We’re actually trying make all the government data open, too, so we’ve brought in Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who invented the internet, and he’s been helping us open the data up so that people know where accidents are taking place, where the police are, where doctors are. The future of government is a far more interactive service. You email us, we reply, you say that’s not good enough; all this new technology is going to empower people.

Are you a texter?

I use emails. I used to text a bit more than I do now.

When you email are you ever tempted to dip into abbreviations like ‘r u’?

Yeah, I do the abbreviations. R u is quite a good one.

Are there any similarities between fatherhood and being PM?

[Laughs] I think in both jobs you’ve got to take responsibility, you really have! People say “the buck stops here”; it certainly does as a father and it certainly does in this job. You’ve got to be aware there are decisions you’ve got to make, difficult decisions, and you’ve got to be able to take them. It’s a tough responsibility, but it tests your character.

Let’s talk about the young Gordon Brown. Any embarrassing childhood stories?

There’s lots of things. My father’s a minister and people used to come to the door of the house and beg for money or ask for help, and it was quite common that my father would give them a pound or something, so that’s what I thought you did. When I was about 10, my parents went out for an hour or so and this guy knocked at the door and said he needed food, so I just said: “Come in, help yourself.” My parents arrived back just afterwards and it seemed I’d just invited in the town’s leading burglar. He was having a look round and was just about to take everything. I was 10…

What do you miss about being anonymous?

Just being able to walk out on to the streets, go into a bookshop, go into a record shop.

So, when you went to see these films, did you see them in cinemas?

Yeah. Near Kirkcaldy there’s a multiplex cinema. We took the children there at Christmas and, as I said, we saw Nativity. And I’ve been to cinemas in London. I like watching the latest films.

When you do that, is there quite a large security retinue?

No, it’s not too bad. I mean at home, in Kirkcaldy, you meet people at the cinema and they tend to know you.

Do they call you Wee Gordon?

If they call you Gordon it’s better. If they start calling you something else then it’s more difficult. You know you’re doing OK if they call you Gordon.

Do you ever download music?

I’ve got my iPod, yeah. I’ve always been interested in music, from The Beatles onwards. I think we’ve got some really good women singers at the moment like Leona Lewis. She’s doing really well, like a lot of the people who have been on X Factor. British music, British fashion, British architecture, British creative talents, British media all do well around the world. I mean, Jonathan Ive, who desgined the iPod, is British, our creative talents are really good.

Talking of music, you were born James Gordon Brown. So what’s the voice like?

Not so good, not so good. I think I would’ve always been compared with a singer who’s a lot better.

Do you ever sing in front of people?

No. I’m able to play the piano a bit, so I just accompany.

I was going to ask you about this. To borrow a Simon Cowell phrase, has ‘likeability’ become more important than policy?

Not in the end for people, I don’t think. I think in the end, when people make a decision, they make a decision on character and about policy. You can have a guy who walks into the room, goes around the room, listens to what people have to say, and says: “I agree with you”. That guy can be a real personality because he’ll say what people want to hear. Or you can have someone with character who’ll walk into the room and say: “This is what I believe. This is what I think is important.” And I think people are more impressed in the end by someone with character than someone superficial.

What about putting yourself across? Do you have coaching or someone to guide you?

Why? Do you think I need coaching?

I like to think I can spot substance, but for a lot of people it’s about the top line, isn’t it?

Well, you’ve got to be able to communicate and I could be better at that. I know that. I mean, I’m not a PR person in the way that people maybe want their politicians to be. But you know, we’re facing a huge set of challenges at the moment for the country. We’ve come through this global financial recession, we’ve prevented unemployment going too high, we’re trying to get it down now, and people are thinking what are the jobs of the future, what are the prospects for young people? Where’s Britain going to be as it pays its way? And we’ve got these creative, digital, low-carbon, biotechnology, these new industries, that are going to create jobs for us. We’re in the lead in some many things around the world and we’ve got so much talent in cities around Britain that I think we’ve got huge opportunities in the next few years. And that’s what I want to get across.

Read the full interview here.