Comment at end
10th July, 2008
The Bishop Auckland Labour party constituency treasurer (treasurer, note):
“When Blair was there, you felt safe.”
DITHERING DEPTHS
The New Statesman has scooped a Brownite foot-in-the-mouth, with Mr Brown agreeing with the interviewer that he is like Heathcliff!
Heathcliff?! Mention of Emily Bronte’s “Withering er Dithering er … Wuthering Heights” anti-hero should have come up instantly as a no-no on the political radar of this well-read politician. But that seems to be one of his major problems. His radar, if he has one, is malfunctioning.
Defunct; out of time; too costly to repair; past its sell-by date; in need of replacement.
Excerpt from The New Statesman:
‘Is he a romantic? I ask. “Ask Sarah,” he chuckles. Some women say you remind them of Heathcliff, I suggest. Brown is, after all, brooding and intense. “Absolutely correct,” he jokes. “Well, maybe an older Heathcliff, a wiser Heathcliff.”‘
But for me the most telling remark in the article came from Robert Yorke, the Bishop Auckland constituency treasurer, who joined the party 13 years ago when Tony Blair became leader.
“Blair could condense his arguments into a soundbite, but Gordon can’t,” he says. “People want leadership and Gordon needs to lead. When Blair was there, you felt safe.”
Too right! It’s such a strange and unexpected situation that Labour finds itself in. After all the widespread anticipation of the ascendancy of the reliable, dependable, prudent, sensible, steady former chancellor – NOW they mourn for the certainties of Blair!
And what of Heathcliff?
Well for someone as well read as Mr Brown, he might have suggested another literary hero – just about ANY other!
“… a passionate, dark, brooding and vindictive man who is largely defined by his all-consuming but thwarted love … doomed romance and Heathcliff’s vengeful reaction to Catherine’s betrayal of him in marrying his rival, Edgar Linton … in keeping with the supernatural themes present within the novel, it is speculated at one point that Heathcliff might in fact be a malevolent changeling … A sullen and ungracious child, he is initially resented by both Catherine Earnshaw and her elder brother, Hindley; whilst Catherine later warms to Heathcliff and falls in love with him, Hindley continues to resent Heathcliff, seeing him as an interloper who has stolen his father’s affection. Upon their father’s death and his inheritance of the estate, Hindley proceeds to spitefully treat Heathcliff as little more than a servant boy, thus deepening Heathcliff’s resentment towards him, but Catherine remains close to him.”
If this is all somewhat familiar, and causes you to think of Brown’s relationship with his predeccessor, you are not the only one!
Here, Andrew Pierce of The Telegraph makes the links with the relationship between the Brothers B.
‘Labour MPs were already drawing comparisons last night of the feud between Gordon Brown, by his own admission a dark brooding Heathcliff figure, and Tony Blair.
Cathy meets an untimely death, and on the day of her funeral Heathcliff exhumes her body having decided to bury himself alongside her. He stops short of suicide only because he senses that Cathy has become part of him, “not under me, but on earth”.
Finally, as he is dying, a broken and tormented man, Heathcliff declares: “I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” Mr Brown, according to his critics, while obsessed by Tony Blair’s legacy has been able [viz] (Ed: I assume he meant “unable”) to function properly without his former friend by his side.’
Mr Pierce also has some fun with the co-incidences of names:
‘Ironically Heathcliff’s bitter rival in Wuthering Heights is one Edgar Linton a mild, mannered, younger man, who marries Cathy. One of Tony Blair’s middle names is Lynton. The Linton in the book has a daughter called Catherine, Mr Blair has a daughter called Kathryn.’
All good fun. But it’s the Labour party who is the disappointed bride! And one year on, she is already in the divorce courts, longing, in her confused anguish, for her old love.
How sad.
How deserved.
Reuters suggests that Brown is courting ridicule with his Heathcliff comparison. Heathcliff or Mr Bean? Ridiculous seems to be the word.
I suppose there is nothing new under the sun … or in the papers. But I just came across this Peter Brookes cartoon in the Times. So in case your memory is short, this isn’t the first time Heathcliff / Brown / Number 10 / Strangulation have been intertwined.
Was he rehearsing for the Heathcliff role here? And in case you had forgotten the coup effort, and the evidence of Brown and Co’s Group Think … Stink, go here and remind yourself of the Foolishness of Brown’s Labour Party.
Tags: 1. Tony Blair, Brown (Gordon Brown & his Labour Government, from June 2007), cathy, emily bronte, heathcliff, wuthering heights
