Gordon Brown & Nixon!

January 19, 2009

What Gordon Brown and Richard Nixon have in common

Just after the Premiere of Frost/Nixon I reflected on the similarity between Tony Blair and David Frost that must have made it easier for Michael Sheen to play both characters.
Now the author of the play, Peter Morgan (who also wrote The Deal about the so-called Granita Pact), has noted the shared easy charm of these two characters.
Fascinatingly he made this comparison as part of a discussion of the shared characteristics of Richard Nixon and Gordon Brown (another likeness I have remarked upon):
They are people who are hard to like, people who have complicated emotional inner landscapes, and somehow have had trouble accessing them.
"People will hate me for saying this, but there are emotional similarities between Gordon Brown and Richard Nixon. Gordon Brown finds it hard to be liked and yet he's a brilliant man. But people don't warm to him, they don't like him.
Posted by Daniel Finkelstein on January 19, 2009 at 01:40 PM in Gordon Brown Permalink

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Comments

Its funny but I was beginning to think there is a physical resemblance now too. Brown's jowls and that fake smile are increasingly Nixonesque.
Posted by: Simon 19 Jan 2009 13:55:30
The similarity, for me, is that Dr James Gordon Brown, like the late Richard M. Nixon, is a bare-faced liar.
Posted by: Keith Darby 19 Jan 2009 14:06:56

Gordon Brown ~ Good news and Bad news for Porridge

The good news, according to the Politics Home website, is that Brown’s unpopularity has finally “bottomed out”.

The bad news is that his approval ratings have flatlined, with 77% thinking he is doing a bad job.

At prime minister’s questions, he looked more miserable and lonely than ever. The talk among Labour MPs is doom-laden.

Could he have gone by Xmas?

Gordon Porridge ~ record breaker

Gordon Brown is breaking all the wrong kind of records.

Only John Major has hit a lower poll rating in office than Brown today. A recovery from here would make history.

With the first anniversary of his premiership still not upon us, Gordon Brown has set an unenviable record. He leads the most unpopular Labour government in polling history.
Jim Callaghan, in the Seventies, never fell below 30 per cent in the Gallup polls of his day. Harold Wilson's nadir was 28 per cent in 1968. Mr Brown's government is supported by just 26 per cent.
Only John Major, who slipped below 20 per cent, stands between Mr Brown and the wooden spoon for most unpopular government. It is hardly a comforting thought.

Gordon Porridge is full of oats

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party reached a record low in popularity ratings, a poll found, although the same survey showed public backing for his counter-terror proposals, a key government policy that faces a vote in Parliament this week.
An ICM Ltd. poll for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper published today gave the main opposition Conservative party a popularity ranking of 42 percent, while Labour scored 26 percent -- the lowest recorded rating for the party by the polling company. ICM interviewed 1,023 adults on June 4 and 5 and no margin of error was given.

Gordon Porridge ~ PM of UK

PM is like porridge - Labour peer

Mr Brown's leadership style was likened to porridge


A Labour peer has launched an attack on Gordon Brown's premiership saying it was like "porridge" compared with predecessor Tony Blair's "champagne".


Lord Desai said Mr Brown must "change his style" to be "more presentable".
He told the BBC recent opinion polls did not look good for Labour, ahead of local elections next month, but said it could "overcome these things."
Lord Desai, a leading economist, is not known to have spoken out against the party leadership before.

'Not exciting'

He told BBC News 24: "A lot of this is about perception. He [Mr Brown] doesn't seem to be able to tell people he's on their side and he can solve their problems.
"I really think somebody has to change his style and make him more presentable."
Gordon Brown was put on earth to remind people how good Tony Blair was
Lord Desai
Lord Desai added: "He is a tremendous person in terms of thinking, policymaking, his seriousness, the question is going to convey to people that he feels their pain and that he is on their side?"
He said that as a Labour member for 37 years, his main concern was the party won the next election, but he believed voters were losing patience with Mr Brown's style of government.
"Blair was like champagne and caviar, Brown is more like porridge or Haggis. He is very solid, very nourishing but not exciting," he said.
'Weak'
The backbench peer denied he was stabbing the prime minister in the back, while he was out of the country on a tour of the US.
"I am not stabbing him at all, but if it was it would be in the front. I have said something openly, frankly," he told BBC News 24.
"Tony Blair had a style of communication and that's why, when you see Gordon Brown, you say 'Oh my God, how good Tony Blair was'," he added.
Earlier, he told the Evening Standard newspaper that the prime minister had appeared "indecisive" and "weak" and was "a worrier".
He said: "Gordon Brown was put on earth to remind people how good Tony Blair was."
Lord Desai, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics, is not known to have spoken out against the Labour leadership before
'Miscalculation'
In his interview, he criticised Mr Brown's decision, while chancellor, to abolish the 10p starting rate of income tax - which opponents say will hit low-earners - calling it a "miscalculation".
Lord Desai said the 1 May elections for councils in England and Wales and the London Assembly and mayoralty were "going to be bad" for Labour.
He added: "If Labour loses in London there will be a real climate of fear... it would be absolutely traumatic for the party. At that point, backbenchers would look at the situation and say, 'How is all this going to work out for me?'. There would be real panic stations."
Lord Desai said Foreign Secretary David Miliband would be the best choice as next Labour leader and called Schools Secretary Ed Balls, a close ally of Mr Brown, a "repetition" of the prime minister.
On Wednesday, Chancellor Alistair Darling said the government had to "sharpen ourselves up" and deliver a "clear message of what we are about".
But Health Secretary Alan Johnson called Mr Brown "a serious man for serious times".