Commentary
A very unlucky man
By Linda S. Heard
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jun 25, 2009, 00:12

No wonder Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown looks as though he has all the cares of the world on his shoulders. As well-intentioned as he undoubtedly is, nothing seems to work out for him. Ever since he stepped into Tony Blair’s shoes two years ago, he has been battling a series of unprecedented problems not of his own making. Yet, try as he might, there are few kudos heading his way.

“To be honest, you could walk away from all of this tomorrow,” he recently told the Guardian. “I’m not interested in what accompanies being in power. I wouldn’t worry if I never returned to all those places -- Downing Street, Chequers -- and it would probably be good for my children.”

If just about any other world leader had uttered those words, I would have been highly skeptical. But I believe Brown. He’s a serious man, a simple man, an unglamorous individual, who lives much of the time in his own head. He was never one of the leadership in-crowd. Not for him invitations to Bilderberg meets or celebrity-owned palatial vacation hideaways in the West Indies. His ambitions to lead Britain didn’t spring from a desire for self-aggrandizement or a will to power but were based on old-fashioned socialist instincts.

Few would question his basic decency, yet many in his own party and throughout the nation want him to go. It seems that decency isn’t a prerequisite for a successful leadership in today’s troubled world where media showmanship is everything. He knows his limitations. He admitted to the Guardian that the ability to communicate his policies isn’t one of his greatest strengths.

In another age, perhaps, he might have emerged as a great moral leader in the mold of Churchill, but, as it turns out, he’s the right man at the wrong time. Or, alternatively, he could be summed up as chronically unlucky. First of all, Tony Blair re-engaged on their private pact that Brown would take the top job during the Labour Party’s second term, which, by all accounts, left Gordon Brown embittered and brooding. Secondly, by the time the baby chose -- or was pushed -- to quit, he was left with the bathwater. Almost from the moment he took office, he was faced with alleged terrorist attacks on London, bovine foot-and-mouth disease, and major flooding; all of which he handled with aplomb.

There was a tiny window when his popularity was high but that shut when he failed to live up to public expectations by postponing a general election. Who can blame him for being reluctant to risk the coveted prize being stripped from him so early on? Nevertheless, the country did. From then on, it’s been downhill all the way for the PM even though he has made no mistakes even approaching his predecessor’s disastrous invasion of Iraq.

And now that he has agreed under the weight of public pressure to hold an enquiry to that “war of choice” after new evidence emerged that Blair was aware all along that Saddam didn’t possess weapons of mass destruction, Blair’s specter still haunts him. Apparently, Brown conceded to an indirect request from his former colleague to hold the enquiry behind closed doors. But this has provoked outrage from opposition parties and general calls of “cover-up,” so he is already starting to backtrack. And although Blair will be very much in the spotlight, there is a slim chance that Brown, who was chancellor of the exchequer at the time, could be tarred if government wrongdoing is proved.

Until now, Brown’s biggest headache has been the global economy downturn, which has had a grave impact on Britain’s housing market, jobs and GDP. Once again, this collapse of the system was no fault of the British PM, although he has been blamed for not making hay when the sun was shining. In any event, he has proved himself to be the best man to lead the UK out of recession as the tide is already starting to turn. He also showed strong international leadership within the G-7 and the EU but was mocked without mercy in Parliament for a slip of the tongue. “We not only saved the world . . .” he said when what he meant was, “We not only saved the banks . . .”

And as if he hasn’t had enough on his plate over the past two years, an enormous -- and growing -- scandal has blown up in his face involving parliamentarians from both sides of the aisle, including Cabinet ministers. A ruthless Daily Telegraph expose has revealed that MPs have been claiming expenses for nonexistent mortgages, so-called “second homes” occupied by other family members and for such trivia as garden gnomes. Several implicated members of Cabinet have already fled the kitchen in fear of the heat. The speaker of the House has had to resign. A number of MPs and Peers face police questioning and potential prosecution for fraud. Naturally, the public is outraged and is venting its spleen against the Labour Party and Gordon Brown’s leadership.

Having recently beaten back a leadership challenge within his own party, Brown’s tenure of No. 10 is hanging by a thread. Personally, I hope history will judge him kindly. He’s not a bad man. He’s not an incompetent man. He’s just a man who has been abandoned by impetuous Lady Luck time and time again.