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On Sunday we shall see Gordon Brown on the Piers Morgan on ITV Show, talking emotionally about the death of his daughter, Jennifer.

The Times in an Editorial has lambasted him for this and for their reasons follow this link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article7024184.ece

My View

To be honest, this is a difficult one to call. Cameron has accepted the very “public nature of his personal life” and countered it by giving the Media sufficient access so that he can reasonably “draw a line” with them. This is one tactic that can work well and has often been employed by the Royal Family particularly with regard to the two Princes following the death of their mother Diana.

Whilst one may despise the “Celebrity Cult” people join the moment they put their head above the parapet and enter ‘Public Life’ in any sphere, it is the reality one must live with and indeed, if you are dependent upon the general public ‘buying your wares’ or voting for you, accommodate it you must for your own sake and that of your nearest and dearest.

Gordon Brown

In this context one can see just how the introverted path (in the Labour Party), of Brown’s career has evolved a person totally unsuited to today’s political environment.

The problem with Brown is that he has never dealt with this issue in any area of his life relying initially on being protected by the Labour Party, then like it or not, Tony Blair and finally his position on being the “PM” to insulate him from the Media. There is nothing wrong with him taking such an approach and projecting himself as a hard working, no frills technocrat “getting on with the job”.

There is no problem either, if that is his view that “Some people have been asking why I haven’t served my children up for spreads in the papers. And my answer is simple. My children aren’t props; they’re people.”

However to now change tactics as a General Election approaches is not right. In that sense the Times Editorial is correct in that even taking part in this programme is a bit cynical for Brown and Labour.

An Impressive Speech

Although I hope we never hear of or from Brown ever again after the Election, perhaps his most impressive speech in the House was his condolences to David Cameron over the death of his son Ivan. He was totally genuine as one Father/Family to another in a shared experience of the death of a child.

Oddly it is that which makes this public display on the Piers Morgan Show so totally inappropriate. In fact I would go even further than that, simply because we are going to have these beastly TV Hustings and the election so close, I am surprised Brown was allowed to appear on TV in such a context at this time, it is thoroughly disgraceful.