Saying Goodbye to Gordon

Gordon said his goodbye to us some days ago, my reaction to his farewell speech has troubled me ever since. He stood outside number ten with his wife and two young children in the background, graciously thanked us, told us how honoured he had been to serve us, explained that it was only the second most important job in his life, the first being his job as a husband and father and so it went on. I am afraid I just did not buy it. I wish I could believe in his sincerity as it just does not feel right to be less than magnanimous to someone in their defeat. But that is how I feel, troubled and less than magnanimous, I simply do not believe in his sincerity.
 
He leaves office having destroyed the retirement dreams of hundreds of thousands of people, he leaves behind higher child poverty, higher unemployment, less social mobility, an increased gap between the rich and the poor, higher numbers of economically inactive people, higher taxation, debts the like of which this country has never seen, and so the litany of failure goes on.
 
You might imagine that my abiding memory of Gordon Brown would be the awe-inspiring spectacle of a labour prime minister taking taxes from some of the lowest paid members of society, shop workers, hotel staff, and people on minimum wage and giving them to some of the richest and least deserving members of society. I speak of Sir Fred Goodwin and his kind.  You would be wrong; my abiding memory is of Gordon Brown meeting the embodiment of a labour voter in Rochdale high street. I could have told him in the blink of eye that he was right when he said Mrs Duffy was a good woman, and that she had worked hard all her life, the difference being that I would have been sincere and he was not. Gordon was right there was a bigot in Rochdale high street that day, but it was not Mrs Duffy.  That was the day when a new labour prime minister meet the living, walking, talking embodiment of a core labour voter and he didn't recognise them, neither did he listen to them, instead he patronised them and insulted them.
 
For thirteen years that was new labour a high taxing, spend thrift government unable to coax more than the smallest improvement from the public services into which it poured our taxes. The rich got richer the poor got poorer, the middle classes were crushed under the burden of taxation and finally the prime minister didn't even know who it was he claimed to have gone into politics to help. He met her face to face in Rochdale, patronised her and insulted her.  Mrs Duffy is no doubt a kind woman; I do not know whether she has forgiven Gordon and wished him well; for myself it disturbs me greatly but I just cannot find it in me to either forgive him or wish him well and unlike Gordon, I do not fake sincerity.

Will Standan.