Gordon Brown’s Best of British

Earlier this year I wrote a piece for TNR’s website suggesting that Gordon Brown’s Scottishness might become a problem for him. Well, with Labour riding high in the polls and talk of an autumn election running rife you might think that this was overblown nonsense. Maybe so. But don’t take my word for it, have a gander at the speech Brown gave to the Labour party conference yesterday.

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For all the talk of change and renewal and driving the country forward, by far and away the most notable element of Brown’s speech was the way he wrapped himself in the Union Flag. He mentioned “Britain”, “British” or “the British people” no fewer than 75 times in his speech.

True, when he talked about the need for immigrants to learn English he was addressing reasonable fears over the nature an extent of muslim assimilation,