To understand Gordon’s ‘Big Tent’, imagine its inhabitants trying to put a tent up

Why does Gordon Brown have a ‘big tent’?

Why does Gordon Brown have a ‘big tent’? Why, to be pertinent, does he have a ‘tent’ at all? There must have been leaders, throughout world history, who have ruled calmly and inclusively and by consensus. Yet if we were to group these people together on a Venn diagram, in their own little circle, surely this circle would not interlock extensively with the one representing ‘people who ruled from tents’.

Genghis Khan ruled from a tent. Sheltering under felt on the harsh Mongol steppes, did he ever worry about reaching out to the other side? ‘We may disagree on minor matters, such as whether I ought to behead you with my axe,’ he almost certainly did not say, to lesser warlords, ‘but I sincerely respect your views on the environment.’

Fable holds that the House of Saud started out in a Bedouin tent. That was a real progressive hotbed, was it not? Muammar Gaddafi, too, is a fan.