As-it-happened: Brown on Building Britain’s Future
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Gordon Brown is holding a ‘public engagement event’ on the South Bank to promote Building Britain’s Future, a large-scale package of measures tantamount to a general election manifesto. Follow our live coverage of the event below.
By Alex Stevenson
17:00 – Hello there – shouldn’t be too long until we kick off. They’ve had to remove a number of chairs from the back row, clearly not as much interest as they were expecting. Empty chairs don’t look too good, apparently. Surely there must be someone who can fill up the spaces? 18:00 – Cooper wraps up proceedings, expressing admiration at Brown and Johnson’s ability to keep their ties and jackets on. And that’s it, and Brown is immediately into the audience shaking hands. “Really hot here, too hot,” he says in a friendly voice, before being bustled out of the room by minders.
17:03 – Brown is on the podium alongside work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper and home secretary Alan Johnson. Ms Cooper kicks off proceedings – no applause as a promotional video finishes.
17:07 – She introduces the PM, who enthuses about the Coin Street community centre we’re in. A rather long story about a letter he’s received from an elderly individual whose entire cohort of associates, it seems, are “better off”, is a good opening.
17:11 – What a contrast from the clunking-fist monster roaring away at the dispatch box just a short time ago. There’s no anger about a Tory party which will “do nothing except cut”. Instead the tone is softer, ingratiating, a politician in his natural environment. “We’ve got to build a strong economy for the future,” he purrs. Johnson looks on. I typed ‘adoringly’, but scratch that. ‘Attentively bored’ might be a better description.
17:12 – For a public engagement event, this is rather one-sided. He’s just repeating his statement to the Commons here, only with more hand gestures. “We’re going to build jobs for the future,” he waves, before throwing in an “I’ll be interested to hear peoples’ views on this”. And then he continues anew.
17:19 – Finally the PM wraps up, and the ever-enthusiastic Cooper, who would have made an excellent musician on the sinking Titanic, chairs the first round of questions.
17:23 – Brown is asked a question from a member of Labour Youth, and responds by repeating the word ‘youth’ ad infinitum. The hands are back at work as he explains his position on the voting age. “I personally favour it,” he confirms, as he looks rather embarrassed at the Youth Justice Commission’s equivocal judgment on the issue.
17:25 – Johnson answers a question about knife crime. “Youngsters sometimes feel particularly patronised sometimes,” he says, before explaining the government’s determination to deal with the issue.
17:27 – A question that keeps cropping up here is ‘entitlement’. What does it, er, actually mean? That first question of this next batch is followed up by a bit of embarrassment about the audience here, which is made up rather disproportionately of councillors from Camden. Finally – thank goodness! a trade union member stands up. Very old school.
17:28 – “I’m the parliamentary candidate for Crewe and Nantwich,” the unionist adds rather dolefully, moaning about the Conservative-controlled council there. Government staff around me laugh a little wryly.
17:34 – “It seems to me Camden’s the safest place to police because everyone’s a councillor or a prospective councillor,” Johnson jokes. Let’s hope he’s joking at least. He ties himself in knots explaining how there’s no ‘choice’ on offer when it comes to police, before insisting that police officers are much more accountable. “They do get this now,” he beams. It may be the weather, but he appears to have lightened up since moving to the Home Office. His jacket is undone. Or maybe that’s just a concession to the weather. No shirt-sleeves politics here.
17:38 – Questions about the Church, Baby P and the recession are next. “People want us to act responsibly,” Brown reveals. This is a classic example of a ‘big question’ giving the PM the remit to go on a bit. He says the public like “integrity” and calls for an “ethical dimension”. No major news story from this just yet, it seems.
17:41 – Johnson answers the question about Baby P, but the church question has been completely ignored. The new home secretary is rather in full flow as he acknowledges the “great problems” faced by social workers. Brown and Cooper look a little relieved as he wraps up.
17:45 – Here’s a more challenging set of questions. Firstly, a young red t-shirt wearing individual expresses concern about ‘theory-based’ carbon capture. Then someone suggests a “black person is eight times more likely to get stopped by the police”. Johnson quivering in his boots.
17:48 – Brown explains the government is determined to take “even more drastic action” on climate change, by pushing for progress at the G8 and G20. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get agreement at Copenhagen,” he says, smiling his YouTube smile. The audience seem a little thoughtful, but at least they’re listening intently.
17:50 – Johnson addresses the home affairs committee report out today on the policing of the G20 protests. “They’re always treading a fine line here,” he says, before playing up the positives contained in the report. No water-cannon, he points out. This appears to be something we should be thankful for. “We do need to look particularly at the case of Ian Tomlinson,” he admits.
17:51 – The home secretary presses a “much more sensitive” approach to policing on the discrimination issue compared to 15 years ago. “We still need to continue to tackle these problems,” he says.
17:52 – Cooper, perhaps eyeing an early bath, calls the last round of questions “before everybody melts”.
17:55 – Brown is all over the middle-aged female who asked the first of this last batch of three. She wanted to know why the national play strategy was not part of Britain’s future. A smiling, ingratiating PM explained he would listen to her carefully and maybe slip it in overnight.
17:58 – “The basis of this report is we can build a strong economy and a strong future together,” the PM says, wrapping up. “I don’t think people should ever stop believing that in this country people can make a difference by acting together.” It’s strong stuff, delivered in the manner you might put a small child to bid. The “thank you very much” is decisive enough.
