Goodbye Gordon, and thanks for all that you did

Writing about the life, times, career and legacy of Gordon Brown is a thankless task. Not because of his longevity – 32 years as an MP, 5 years as Shadow Chancellor, 10 years as Chancellor and 3 years as Prime Minister – but because of his almost Shakespearian levels of complexity and contradiction. Brown is one of those politicians on whom everyone in politics (and much of the country) has a firm and settled view. To both his supporters and critics, I apologise in advance for the major Brown moments I am almost certain to have missed. For this was a career of remarkable highs matched only by equally as remarkable lows.

So how will history remember Gordon Brown? Unfortunately for Labour and Brown alike, that he served as Prime Minister but never won an election will always get a mention. Unchallenged for the Labour leadership in 2007 (when no candidates had enough nominations to take him on) he failed in his only election as party leader in 2010 – and failed badly, taking the party to a pitiable 29%. That it followed the global financial crisis and over a decade of Labour rule obviously played its part, but so did his style of leadership.

After coveting the top job for years – destabilising his predecessor and unleashing an at times unpleasant brand of politics in a sustained attempt to take the role – he sometimes appeared paralysed by indecision once in charge. It was a source of continual frustration for Labour MPs who wondered why he had sought the job for so long if he lacked a “big idea” for what to do once he got there. And unlike his predecessor, partner and rival Tony Blair, he didn’t have the easygoing manner that played well in the media. Brown was always described as “brooding” or “seething”. The media coverage he received was sometimes unfair, but it wasn’t entirely inaccurate. His infamous angry outbursts (rarely seen in public, but spoken of freely by former Brown aides) represented his passion and drive, but also perhaps his frustration with the constraints of Prime Ministerial power.

His final weeks as Prime Minister will be amongst the most remarked upon – not least one unforgettable incident on the campaign trail. As one commentator said to me last night, it’s astonishing that after a former PM retires, so many are talking about a grandmother from Rochdale. But his encounter with Mrs Duffy serves as a coda for so much about Brown. They talked about immigration amongst other matters before Brown climbed into his car (forgetting to remove his microphone) en route to the next meeting. Duffy was impressed with the Labour leader, telling broadcasters that she was now more likely to vote Labour – until, of course, she was told that he had referred to her as a “bigoted woman”.

Success undone by an unguarded error.

But to dwell on Brown’s failings is to merely scratch the surface of this remarkable character and life. A man who fought back from near blindness to achieve the highest office in the land. The longest serving Chancellor of the modern era, a role which he used to relentlessly take on poverty both at home and abroad – and kept Britain out of the Euro to boot. And when the financial crash came (due, it must be said, to the failure of British government’s and others to regulate the financial sector properly) the man in the hot seat took the necessary action – without a hint of the indecisiveness that often marred his leadership. There are many willing to mock Brown’s “saved the world” slip of the tongue – but it’s surely beyond doubt that in those febrile months he did save the global financial system. Without Brown, we may have faced a nightmare scenario of a run on the banks, queues at banks for deposits that had already gone and a spiral into depression.

Meanwhile on the international stage as both Chancellor and Prime Minister he took on the great evil of poverty with the moral zeal of his preacher father. Dropping the debt for third world countries was a difficult but enormously important moment in international relations – as was Brown’s drive towards free healthcare in Africa.

And then – after the years on the frontline – Brown’s return to save his nations (Britain and Scotland) during the Independence campaign was masterful. No single speech wins a campaign. No single intervention determines the future direction of a nation. But few who campaigned in that referendum can be in any doubt as to the significant impact his role and that final speech in particular had on event. In those final days of the campaign – as he had shown in the final days of the 2010 campaign – Brown showed the kind of politician he was capable of being, and perhaps the Prime Minister he might have been.

And I’ve managed to get this far without even mentioning Bank of England independence or saving the NHS from years of Tory neglect.

I only met Brown once, and only in the most tangental fashion. On the day before the European elections in 2009 he visited the campaign office where I was working and met those who were still fighting hard for the party. The next day, of course, was one of the worst days in the party’s recent history – an electoral cataclysm with resignations to match. And yet Brown was calm, generous with his time and happy to stop and talk to volunteers and members of the public alike. As he walked back to his car he shook hand after hand, giving everyone a stern but cheery “Thank you for all that you do”. This Brownian catchphrase tickled me, and I adopted it as my own during my time as an organiser, thanking volunteers and candidates for all that they were doing. It was only when attending an event at party conference last year I watched him do exactly the same thing, watched others smile as the catchphrase came out, and realised that across the whole country there were Labour members thanking each other for all that they did.

It is for small reasons like this that many Labour members will remember Brown fondly, alongside his towering achievements. He has his detractors (and there are elements of his record which deserve real criticism) but few will have a record of achievement anything like his to bolster their opinions.

Gordon Brown spoke out one last time yesterday to thank his constituents and the British people for the chance to serve. But history will judge Gordon Brown far more kindly than our short-sighted media see fit to do today. In time, we will realise that it should have been us thanking him for all that he did, after all.