Interviewed on Sunday AM, Gordon Brown repeatedly refused to rule out an October poll. He even refused to rule out calling an election this week.
Non-verbatim highlights:
- He wouldn’t rule out autumn election [Given the speculation he has permitted Brown really risks becoming diminished, political and ‘chicken’ if he doesn’t now go to the country.]
- He said that he wouldn’t discuss election-timing – he was focusing on governing – including the crises he has faced on terrorism, Foot and Mouth, flooding and Northern Rock.
- The choice at the next election would be between a Labour Government committed to stability and growth and a Tory party locked into the economics of 1992 – when David Cameron stood alongside Norman Lamont on Black Wednesday.
- He wanted to create an NHS that was "personal" to all patients.
- He evaded questions on when he first knew about Northern Rock.
- Mervyn King – like Eddie George – is a brilliant Governor. The system created in 1997 has delivered stability and an end to stop-and-go.
- What the Tories call the debt problem is actually a huge increase in the number of people who have bought their own homes. On average people are paying a lower proportion of their incomes on repayments today than in the early 1990s.
- David Cameron was Norman Lamont’s failed economic adviser. Yawn. Matthew Parris has written about Brown’s misleading spin on this.
- Asked who he was politically, he answered that he was the son of a church minister who believed in hard work, family and respect for others. The NHS summed up his political values.
- Told that the SNP planned party election broadcasts featuring his Downing Street photo opportunity with Margaret Thatcher, he replied that he invited Margaret Thatcher to Downing Street because it was a courteous thing to do. Although she had caused too much unemployment, she did recognise the need for change when she was PM and she is a conviction politician.
- Britain has a system of "managed migration" – a points-based system based on the Australian system. If you come to this country you need to learn our language and understand our culture. [Brown repeatedly declined to answer Andrew Marr’s straight question on whether there was too much immigration].
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