Daily View: Brown/Morgan interview
Commentators review Gordon Brown's interview with Piers Morgan.
Gordon Brown's intimate interview was out of character:
"The pain which the PM describes to Piers Morgan in the interview is agonisingly real, a livid scar on his soul. What is bogus is the implication that the famously private Brown has suddenly decided that nothing is off limits, that politics is about personality after all, and that all questions are legitimate. 'I think it's important that people know who you are,' he says, 'and... that people can ask any questions they like about you.' I don't believe the PM really thinks that for a moment. It is like Howard Hughes saying 'Come on in, guys!', or Greta Garbo deciding that 'actually, I don't want to be alone - let's play Twister!'"
the interview as a mistake:
"A private man, Mr Brown finds it hard to conjure the words to evoke our imaginative sympathy. There is always something not quite right - like a man who learnt to dance from a series of still pictures."
that the interview made him feel sorry for Gordon Brown "in the wrong way":
"In an ideal world, earnest prime ministers shouldn't have to grin and do this sort of thing. Yet for a man who has suffered near blindness, lost a child and fathered another child with cystic fibrosis, Brown should be easier to warm to. Voters may feel sorry for him, but in the wrong way - in the way they did for Susan Boyle, before that voice rang out."
about the authenticity of the exchanges:
"For years we have been told that Mr Brown was the rock, the clunking fist. Now, with the opinion polls bad, came different tactics. His spin doctors (no doubt led by that PR-professional wife) got him to blub on Sunday night telly. Shrewd? Possibly. But desperate, too."
the interview will make a difference at the ballot box:
"At this stage before the general election the only thing that matters is whether Brown's much-hyped TV programme with Piers Morgan is going to cause any more people to vote Labour in the seats where it matters... My view was that Brown came out of it well and a bit more human. But I can't see many people changing their minds about him."
the interview was the best publicity Gordon Brown is ever likely to get:
"It's often said that Brown is a charmer when he can be bothered to find the 'on' switch, and he found it tonight. Perhaps because Brown was being interviewed by a friend, he spoke and behaved utterly different to how he normally does. This was as good as it gets for him."
Political blogger Gordon Brown came across well but wondered if, in such an easy interview, anyone learned anything:
"As an interview it stank. And I say this with some regret because I actually think Piers Morgan can be a very talented interviewer. But there was no probing, no exploring, nothing. It was just an hour long party political broadcast on behalf of the Gordon Brown Party."
Links in full
