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Less than two weeks after one of the high points of his premiership, the G20 summit, Gordon Brown finds himself caught up in a scandal that encapsulates the grubbiest side of politics. Yet like all truly memorable political scandals, the Damian McBride email furore is important for what it reveals about the culture at the heart of government, and about the enduring psychological flaws of the man the smears were meant to benefit.
That man - the Prime Minister - is, in the process, looking increasingly like the Richard Nixon of British politics.
Gordon Brown's admirers have long claimed that he resembled one of the iconic American presidents of the last century: as recently as the G20 jamboree, his aides were presenting him as the new Franklin D Roosevelt, father of the New Deal. The true comparison is with a very different 20th-century president: another brooding, brilliant man, a man of great brains and vision but whose gnawing insecurities, bare-knuckle instincts and taste for dirty tricks were to bring him down.
Thanks to films such as the brilliant Frost/Nixon, Richard Nixon is remembered today as one of the worst presidents in American history. He was the driving figure behind the illegal break-in and surveillance of his opponents' headquarters in the Watergate complex, and a twisted paranoiac whose suspicions reached such depths that he even taped his own Oval Office conversations, providing damning evidence for his accusers.
Yet before the Watergate scandal broke in 1972, Nixon was one of the most popular leaders in American history, a humble Quaker who had made himself the greatest statesman of his age, reaching out to his country's enemies, making a historic trip to China and signing a disarmament deal with the Russians inside the Kremlin itself.
Like our current Prime Minister, he was widely regarded as a talented and bookish man, an intellectual raised in an atmosphere of pious, progressive Christianity, hamstrung only by his awkwardness and reserve in front of the cameras.
Sadly for Mr Brown, the parallels do not end there. When Nixon lost the 1960 election to the rich Boston playboy John F Kennedy, he spent years smouldering with jealousy - just as Mr Brown seethed with envy after Tony Blair snatched the Labour leadership in 1994. In both cases, disappointment left a deep scar that never really healed.
By then Nixon already had the reputation for brutal political campaigning, based on two bruising elections in California in the late 1940s, yet he was never able to live with defeat. As a thin-skinned poor boy made good, he hated the thought of losing out to "those people from the elite", the "Harvard sons of bitches" he hated so much. And the fact that Kennedy's narrow victory came after allegations of massive voting fraud in Texas and Illinois only made the result harder to take - and propelled Nixon further down the path to paranoia.
Nixon, in an attempt to make sure he never suffered again, surrounded himself with thuggish aides who would stop at nothing to confound their master's rivals. Brown, too, has long surrounded himself with hand-picked cronies notable largely for their aggression and ruthlessness.
Nixon had political bruisers like Charles Colson, who hired truck drivers to beat up peace demonstrators, planned to firebomb unfriendly think tanks and boasted that he would drive over his own grandmother to get Nixon re-elected. Mr Brown's own Charlie - Whelan, the spin doctor forced to quit 10 years ago after briefing against Peter Mandelson - was not quite as physically aggressive. But he set the tone for the Brown court's paranoid, macho atmosphere.
Here the Watergate analogy is irresistible. When the scandal broke, it resonated precisely because it exposed a wider climate of poisonous factionalism, traceable not just to the everyday knockabout of democratic politics but to Nixon's obsessive,wounded, suspicious personality.
For while the president might not have ordered the break-in personally, he had created the climate in which it became acceptable, constantly telling his staff to "screw" and "destroy" his opponents. "I really need a son of a bitch who will work his butt off and do it dishonourably," Nixon once told his staff in remarks captured by his secret taping system. "We are going to use any means. Is that clear?"
We might find it hard to imagine the PM mouthing similar sentiments. But talk to anyone who has been close to the Brown court and a disturbingly familiar picture emerges.
After all, the Prime Minister did not employ Damian McBride for his social skills. He knew precisely what he was getting: a brutal hatchet man who would stop at nothing to protect his boss, whether smearing his Tory opponents or putting the boot into Cabinet rivals.
Politics is no place for shrinking violets. And politicians have been using spin doctors since the Greek slaves who advised Roman emperors on their public relations. Hard-bitten Downing Street loyalists of the modern age such as Joe Haines and Bernard Ingham, who advised Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher respectively, were no softies.
Yet even seasoned observers have been shocked by the extraordinary insecurity, negativity and belligerence of the Downing Street snakepit under Brown. Some of it, no doubt, is rooted in the violent ideological battles of the 1980s, as well as the peculiarly aggressive tribalism of Scottish Labour politics. But just as the real author of Watergate was Nixon, so the blame for the McBride scandal ultimately lies with the boss.
Ironically Brown, like Nixon before him, probably never needed to play dirty. In today's dilapidated political arena, he stands out as a genuinely impressive political intellectual, a man of idealism who should never have cheapened himself by associating with the Damian McBrides of this world.
Politics can never be separated entirely from spin. But there is a clear line between public relations and dirty tricks - a line that both Nixon and Brown, for all their great political gifts, seem not to have recognised, as though their antennae, so sensitive in other areas, were no longer working. Perhaps that is the most compelling parallel of all- two glowering men, so brilliant at politics in many ways, yet so inept in others.
The tragedy is that after relying on the hatchet men for so long, the Prime Minister now seems unable do without them. We cannot, it appears, have the good Gordon without the bad.
It is a shame for him, a brilliant and high-minded politician who succumbed to his demons. But it is an even bigger shame for the rest of us, who can only look on in anguish and disgust as one of the greatest Labour politicians of the past 30 years is enmired by his own paranoia and ruthlessness.
* Dominic Sandbrook is the author of Eugene McCarthy and the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism (Anchor).
Reader views (15)
Brown has too many chips and deceptions. His real character is shown by his use of men like Whelan and McPoison to lie and spread dirt on others. That is not a moral man. These people did Brown's every bidding. The actions bring disgrace on No 10, and politics generally. Brown admits it, his letters said 'they have no place' and the he tried a smear adding 'in our politics'. No, your men, did your politics. As you preached how hard you all were working on the financial meltdown you created, your Head of Strategy was working up lies and slurs aimed to destroy people.
Brown is not flawed. he never was only a devious tax collector, cunning at finding ways to take revenue without voters noticing. 1997 tax was £70bn, now £140bn, with public services worse and now burdened with State debts. He sestroyed UK pensions. OAP's now need to skip meals and not heat, because Brown took their pensions. They put their money into buildig societies and property. He has crashed those. He would not see the big picture. His cheating changes to inflation measures made a house boom and worse bust. His orders to FSA to ignore bank business plans and focus on new bank accounts, lead directly to the UK bank collapse. His orders on immigration has meant vast inflows unchecked and have spawned over 300 terror cells plotting murder in the UK on a scale far worse than the IRA ever imagined. Brown has caused much damage, and sickens people. Maybe he will cancel elections.
- Friend, Fife uk
excellent piece. However both politician suffer/ed from 2 fatal flaws.Pride and Ambition. Nixon struggled to accept he created the culture his minions operated in and was therefore responsible and because of this pride still had problems apologising to the nation for what he had done under his presidency. A driven ambition to get what he craved and coveted more than anthing and keep it at any costs no matter who or what this destroyed. Truly Uncanny. Roll on the 4th June!!!
- Joe Galelli, london England
Well done, Dominic Sandbrook. I share the view of others above that Nixon might have been a smarter cookie but in terms of vengefulness, tendency to brood and paranoia, Prof. Sandbrook is right. A brilliant piece.
And there is another parallel: Nixon came in promising an end to the Vietnam war but continued it, while Brown has somehow managed to ignore the Iraq war since 2003, while continuing to pursue it. OK, that's a difference but the larger issue is that both got in trouble over domestic issues, not the wars that left so many dead - and so many others injured and impoverished.
I hope that some day these leaders may be held accountable for the deaths in their names, as well as their dirty tricks.
- Elizabeth Block, London, UK
Very clever observations, Sandy from Ealing, and I share your sentiments!
- Delphine, Oxford
I don't see the comparison with Nixon. Nixon was highly intelligent, achieved much and was elected twice. Yes, we know he had faults too.
Brown has never been elected, never will be and there's no evidence of intellect. He sold Gold at the bottom of the cycle and even announced the date he was to sell it! How stupid is that? He's ruined the pensions schemes of millions through ill thought out tax changes, he's mismanaged UK financial regulations which has largely caused the UK banking crisis, and has now borrowed so much that we'll have to be bailed out by the IMF. His legacy is that UK debts are now so large that they can only be paid off by subsequent generations. What a legacy!
I'm sorry, but if you think he has some great intellect, you've been duped. Clearly, he's thick. And we now know he's highly unpleasant and malicious too.
- Richard Walker, Farnham
Onward Labour soldiers onwards without fear, whilst your Corps Commander stays safely in the rear.
- Macdangler, Wimbledon UK
I have thought for a long time now that Brown is a thoroughly unpleasant character, who surrounds himself with equally unpleasant and almost thuggish individuals. Why the Labour Party didn't take the opportunity to get rid of him two years ago beggars belief. Despite our archaic electoral system it appears that ousting Brown and consigning him to the dirtiest and smelliest political dustbin will be left to the British people, and it won't be long now.
- Neil45, Gloucestershire, England.
The article makes a good point that should be repeated: McBride was employed by Brown and has worked with him for several years, including at the Treasury - he is not a "hangover" from St. Tony's days, as has been suggested. Brown knew what he was getting from McBride and is totally complicit in this scandal. McBride has at least got the bullet; Brown should be next.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
If you want to see the inadequacy of Brown's thought processes just read the inept letter he wrote to the aggrieved Conservatives after McBride. The letter is poorly thought out, lacks structure and reveals total self centredness and self-justification. In so far as he expresses "regret" it is only as an afterthought. And the long windy letter to The Cabinet Secretary, was an extreme example of lack of precision, having obviusly been written more as a public speec than as a letter of instruction to a public servant. The two letters say so much about him. I hate him so much.
- Sandy, Ealing, UK
Brown's problems seem to stem from the fact he was shafted by Saint Tony. He has had to return to the spin doctors that kept Tony so safe but he has not the same survival instinct as Tony nor the same control. Its sad that he may well be remembered as the Prime Minister who destroyed Labour and Teflon Tony will be a hero
- Terry, Hennebont France
No. Nixon was elected by the American electorate. Brown never will be.
- Paul Freeman, London, England
Tories should concentrate on putting forward some credible polices, thats what the opposition is for, the man is gone the media has stretched the story long enough. The public are getting bored, I for one have stopped reading about it and stopped watching it.
- W Churchill, Herefordshire
Oh come on! Why do we keep hearing this ridiculous tosh about Gordon Brown being intelligent? Ask someone who knows! The evidence has been to the contrary for a very long time. As for the G20 being a high-point, this also is ludicrous. The G20 achieved little, except to expose the fact that our police are as bullying and vicious as the Labour party machine.
- Dr Ian Comaish, Brisbane, Australia
The problem with Britain today?
A scum Government, leading to a scum police force with scum youths on our streets. You see scum creates more scum.
When you 'stand for nothing you are likely to fall for anything', and that's what the UK is all about celebrity idolisation, no vision, reality TV pop culture and atheism. No wonder this nation is seemingly under judgement. What do you expect?
Righteous exalts a nation and without a vision the people perish. Hanging on every word that Darwin uttered will lead you to hell my friends.
- Chris Williams, Cardiff
This seems to be a very perceptive article; as an ordinary voter, it fits in well with my perception of Gordon Brown
- Barry Arends, Hitchin
