Daily Lessons from Life 20 June 2009

"British PM 'hurt' and could 'walk away tomorrow' But with elections in a year, Brown insists he could lead Labour to victory. -Sat, Jun 20, 2009 AFP

LONDON, ENGLAND - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown admitted he had been 'hurt' by criticism aimed at him and said he could easily 'walk away from all of this tomorrow', in an interview published Saturday.


Brown told The Guardian newspaper that he would not be worried if he never saw his Downing Street office again and accepted he was not the communicator he would like to be.

Brown's authority has been shaken by the resignation of several ministers - some accompanied with sharp personal attacks - the lawmakers' expenses scandal and a heavy drubbing for his governing Labour Party in recent European Parliament and English local elections. Though Labour is well behind in the opinion polls with a general election due inside 12 months, Brown insisted he could lead Labour to victory. 'To be honest, you could walk away from all of this tomorrow,' Brown said.


'I'm not interested in what accompanies being in power. It wouldn't worry me if I never returned to any of those places - Downing Street, Chequers. That would not worry me at all. And it would probably be good for my children.' He added: 'Look, find weaknesses in me, criticise me for my weaknesses - I'm not as great a presenter of information or communicator as I would like to be.
'It's easy to find an individual to blame, and make that person the source of the trouble, but we've been hit by a world economic hurricane, by an expenses crisis unparalleled in the history of Westminster, and we've been in government for 12 years.

'However much you feel responsible, and however much your integrity is... and you feel hurt by what people are saying, you've got to deal with it.' "


Gordon Brown pushed Tony Blair to resign and leave office after being in power for a very long 12 years! Tony was the UK PM known as the Deputy President of USA to ex-President, not-my-favourite, Bush. His downfall was mainly due to the UK people perceived him to be the 'yes man' to Bush though he and his government did a fairly decent job domestically.

Now that Brown is in power for a few months, he realized it is not all it seems to be the PM! It is easy to be distracted from real issues of integrity and abuse of the privilege of the parliament by the elites and elected officials when the focus of most people was on the WAR!! Just as President Bush and his old-school conservative cabinet buddies like Dick Cheney and Rumfeld. In peace time, people shift their focus to the basic urban human needs like food, drink, housing, job securities, etc. And then on how the elected members of parliament are living off and spending the taxpayers' money!!

Lessons for me are:

1. Brown wanted to be the PM as he believed he can do a better job. That is natural and noble. The next person should always believed and aimed to do a better job than his/her predecessor. However, if he/she could not, he/she must be prepared to be 'roasted' by the neutral in addition to the ever present long-time critics!;

2. while Brown said he could walk away and not give a damn to the trapping of being powerful, I could not believed him! It is human nature to be fond of being treated or feted as an important person. A person of immense power and authority though also keenly aware of the responsibilities that come with it. Bringing in the children in his statement is a bit lame. The children never asked for it. He did!;

3. while it is easy to blame the many other factors that brought his party and himself to this sorry stage, a true leader must take the responsibility and shoulder it squarely. If he is a 7e leader where he is grounded on ETHICS, he will not find an excuse. All that he needs to say is: "I am here. We are here. Deep in troubles. We need to take actions to get ourselves out of this pit! Re-focused on personal integrity and shut down the tap of easy juicy rides on the gravy train." A plain or even poor communicator in public speaking can still produce results quietly and let the results speak for themselves.

I must admit I do not like Brown. I thought he was impatient to push Tony Blair out. But this is politic. Perhaps I cannot expect too much of a 7e Leadership behaviors from politicians?