Charitable Saint Brown shows up Bully Blair
Brown might be angry at Blair’s book revelations, but his retaliation has been masterly
For someone with "zero emotional intelligence" - as Tony Blair claims in his new book - Gordon Brown's retaliation to his former rival's character assassination has been masterly.
Brown is reportedly "seething" following the character assassination of him in A Journey, but he has told his aides not to rise to the bait.
Furthermore, Brown has made a very timely announcement. He is to devote whatever spare time he has while serving as an MP to doing good works in Africa and other poor nations - and all of it unpaid.
The not-for-profit Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown, to be staffed by two or three people, will be paid for by occasional paid speeches organised by the Washington Speakers' Bureau. These should bring in about £50,000-£60,000 a shot (compared to a reported £200,000 per speech for Blair).
Brown is to join the Global Campaign for Education, which pressures governments to provide free education for all, and will also join the board of the World Wide Web Foundation, where "Doctor Brown will advise on ways to involve disadvantaged communities and global leaders in the development of sustainable programs that connect humanity and affect positive change".
'Doctor' Brown will also write papers to support these campaigns.
Although Blair did set up a charity, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, on leaving Downing Street in 2007, critics have accused him of monetising his undoubted influence as a former prime minister by taking positions at JP Morgan and Zurich Financial Services.
He also receives an undisclosed sum from UI Energy Corporation, a South Korean oil firm which was awarded the right to drill in northern Iraq. In all, Blair is said to have earned £20m since leaving Downing St.
There is no doubt which of the two men is now firmly ensconced on the moral high ground. The Guardian has duly dubbed him 'Saint Gordon'. ·
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Comments
Home is certainly a good place for Charity to begin but why do so many people who say CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME seem to actually mean Charity should end at home.
I had hoped to have heard the last of GBroon but maybe he is hanging on like a swinging corpse in the gibbet outside Newgate Prison , as where he would have been in the good old days if there was any justice at all in England.
I have never been a Labour voter and probably will never be, however, I recognise that their las administration also had some good things.
when it comes to political personnas i van see why the English electorate would not for for Gordon as the Scots did.
It is clear that Tony Blair, like many other politician was driven by personal ambition more than by a vocation for service. This personal ambition which is healthy remains today and is expressed by his ability to profit from his para-political activities.
Gordon is a different kind of beast, and his actions will be driven
mostly by his desire of protecting the weak and the disadvantage and to bring opportunities to the dispossesed. Gordon Brown moral caliber is beyond discussion. His contribution has been already immense, beyond the errors that any government can make. Gordon moral stance is in line with the best of British and Scottish tradition.
Dr Eduardo Loedel-Soca
Brown is simply frightened to retaliate.He knows it would leave him wide open to attacks from the media,the right wing,and the Blairites.He is in a no win situation because he has never had the intellect to be an effective PM.Guilty of bullying himself into a job way beyond his capabilities.
Whilst I would normally be the last person to defend Gordon Brown, the media (including this site) are stabbing a rotting corpse (takes out onion). Had it not been for Brown, we would now be in a double-dip recession (like the Americans will be soon). He acted decisively (whilst everyone, including Nobel Prize winning Economists and "savvy" politicians around the world were dithering) to minimise the potentially horrendous problems which he himself exasperated.
I'd rather have a dour and fallible technocrat over some flash shyster (like Blair and, unfortunately, Obama) who is more interested in his legacy than at least attempting to do what is (or they think is) right.
These memoirs are a vile attempt by a spiv to white-wash the fact that he acted as a poodle to the Americans and cost the lives of hundreds of exceedingly brave soldiers and possibly up to 100,000 Iraqis (not that Gordon Brown is innocent either- he financed the travesty).
Also, what's with the derogative 'Doctor' Brown bit? He has a PhD.
While serving as an MP, he should devote himself to his constituents, not try to outshine Blair in being saintly!
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME!!!!!!