Is J.K. Rowling the last person in Britain to still appreciate Gordon Brown? She has profiled the Prime Minister, listed this week by Time Magazine in one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
She writes:
When capitalism shuddered on its foundations last year, Brownite words like responsibility and morality started issuing from the unlikeliest politicians. Global financial regulation, something Brown had advocated long before last September, shot to the top of the political agenda. Now Prime Minister, Brown took a lead among European leaders in setting a course for economic recovery. He hosted the most important meeting of the world’s major economies in years. In doing so, the British press said, he had become “Chancellor to the world.”
The son of a Presbyterian minister, with a formidable intellect and a work ethic to shame a nest of ants, the 58-year-old Brown is frequently dubbed “dour.” I know him as affable, funny and gregarious, a great listener, a kind and loyal friend. These are strange and turbulent times, but issues of fairness, equality and protection of the poor have never been more important. I still want Gordon Brown in charge.
That makes her and, er, Phil Woolas?
Meanwhile, our PM was asked to profile Barack Obama himself:
As the first black President, Obama, 47, has already proved that once inaccessible pinnacles can be reached. His swift and decisive action on the economic crisis has been impressive in itself but is only one pioneering achievement of his first hundred days. Now global problems need global solutions, from our bold initiative to give every child in every country the opportunity of a good education, to our shared ambition of an agreement on climate change at Copenhagen in December. Obama is working with world leaders to take on the unparalleled challenges of the global age: in development, climate change, energy, terrorism and security.
Of course, his oratory is today unmatched. But his courage — the courage to go first, to lead, where none have gone before — is doubly unmatched. When he speaks, he gives those who hear him confidence: not in him but in themselves. It was said of Cicero that when people heard him, they turned to one another and said, “Great speech”; but when Demosthenes spoke, people turned to one another and said, “Let’s march.” All around the world people are marching with Barack Obama.
Brave stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Collective panic is the one thing society can’t do without. Part of the holy trilogy that also consists of collective mourning (Diana and Jade Goody to mention but two) and collective hysteria (the World Cup on the big fuckoff screen while Carlsberg-Tetleys count the cash), it comes in cycles, regular as clockwork.