Guess who’s back | 26 July 2010

Oh look, Gordon Brown has continured his return to public life with a sizeable interview in today’s Independent.  It’s a generous portrait which seems designed to dispel any rumours about the former Prime Minister’s wellbeing. Apparently, he “looks healthy and fit … seems quite cheerful.” And we’re treated to descriptions of his face, “like a map of a man’s soul.” For those who can read any further, there are accounts of his constituency work and his aspirations to “do more on international development”. The world shudders.

Despite his claims to the contrary, there are ominous signs that Brown is keen to impact upon our national politics. His clearest boast in the interview is that he “understood what was happening” during the financial crisis  – an argument he’ll make in long-form in a book to be published, we now learn, this November. That tome may not trouble the Christmas bestseller lists, but it’s bound to appear on the radar of the new Labour leader.