IF Gordon Brown was Prime Minister of a better Britain, then his speech yesterday at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland would have been a historic triumph. If we were all better people – kind, thoughtful, interested, generous – his call for us to inhabit a "single moral universe to bring about change" would have found a ready echo in our most fundamental values and concerns. And it would have confirmed this son of the manse as the man Britain believes is right to run the cou
But, of course, this is not that Britain. We are not that people. And, as a consequence, Gordon Brown is not that Prime Minister. What yesterday's speech confirmed, if anything, was the gulf between the world Brown inhabits and the world where most p
eople live. It's a disheartening conclusion, but if we are to be honest, it's an unavoidable one.
Never before in his time as Prime Minister has Brown surrendered so completely to the pull of the pulpit – urging the country "to honour the dream of the scriptures: that justice will roll like water and righteousness like a mighty stream". The part of him that has always been a preacher has been kept under wraps for most of his time in government. But it was always going to rise to the occasion yesterday in the Assembly Hall, as he became the first Prime Minister to address the Church for 20 years.
The opportunity to contrast his world view with that of Margaret Thatcher in her infamous Sermon on the Mound proved too great to resist. This was an occasion for Brown to have his core values calibrated on a moral scale, and he took full advantage. As a result, we saw Brown in a rare, unfiltered, unmediated moment yesterday. For once, his audience was not the Daily Mail leader writers.
His most heartfelt comment was also the most revealing. Brown reminded his audience that, like most of them, his father raised his family on a minister's stipend. "He also brought us up to believe that the size of your wealth mattered less than the strength of your character; that a life of joy and fulfilment could be lived in the service of others; and that to be tested by adversity is not a fate to be feared but a challenge to be overcome."
Most people would wholeheartedly admire these virtues and applaud this sentiment. But only, naturally, if they applied to someone else. The problem for Brown is there are few takers in 21st-century Britain when what's on offer is frugality, sacrifice and adversity.
Not for the first time, it's useful to ask the question: What would Tony have done? Middle Britain, at its most insular and self-interested, could easily recognise itself in the instincts of Tony Blair. The ostentatious holidays. The admiration for wealth. The eager courting of privilege. Nothing of this is reflected back when Middle Britain looks at Gordon Brown. They see a stranger.
Yes, there are millions of idealistic people in Britain, not just among the young, for whom the international battle against poverty, hunger and injustice is a moral duty. They are fully signed up to what Brown described yesterday as "the irrepressible revolution of our time – a billion voices for change". They may well represent the best of Britain, but they are in a minority.
Brown's international mission, as set out yesterday, was striking. "Acting together, the first generation in the history of mankind to abolish illiteracy and give every child the right to education; acting together, the first generation to eradicate tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, malaria, on the way to eradicating HIV/Aids." Such ambition was startling, coming from a man whose political pronouncements are usually heavy with caveats and caution.
In this light, the SNP's reaction to Brown's speech was badly misjudged. There are issues that demand a progressive consensus across the political spectrum, and surely confronting the most devastating of the world's ills is one of those issues. Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minister, could have welcomed Brown's internationalist message and assured him of her party's support in a just cause. Instead, she tried to suggest a moral equivalence between Brown's speech and Thatcher's sermon from 20 years ago. I doubt very much if even Sturgeon believes this is justified. Quite how she believes she can convince anyone else is beyond me. She sold herself short.
The authentic Gordon Brown was on show yesterday. For that we should be grateful. It's a far more edifying sight than the grinning idiot making guest appearances on American reality television programmes or shifting uncomfortably on the day-glo settees of daytime chatshows.
The authentic Brown is a man that flatters the kind of people we would like to be, and the kind of Britain we would like to aspire to. This is an honourable strategy for a national leader, with its echoes of JFK's "ask not what your country can do for you". But this is a country facing the prospect of a recession, having become, over the past decade, used to economic stability and relative comfort. The cold truth is that making the wider world a better place is not top of everyone's to-do list.
When the time comes to vote in a general election, will idealism and international solidarity be uppermost in Britain's mind? Or will it be more venal concerns, of the kind that Brown is currently struggling to address? I think we all know the answer to that one.
The full article contains 925 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
