I’ve just got around to watching some of Gordon Brown’s appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival yesterday (you can see footage here). It wasn’t that bad, actually. If anything, he came across as relaxed, confident and – shock, horror – fairly witty. One can’t help but view it all as a long message to David Miliband. Something like “Look, you ungrateful upstart, I can do ‘Man of the People’; I can do charming. And I’m completely at ease with all your plotting”.
But there was more to it than that. He dimissed claims that Britain is broken, and made reference to the general resolve and decency of the British public:
“I don’t think the British people have ever been broken by anything or anyone … I feel there is so much good being done in different parts of our country … I think Britain is basically a decent, compassionate society and most people want to see things change for the better.”
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