Brown Congress speech as-it-happened
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11:23 – Gordon Brown won’t be making his speech until 16:00 GMT. The preliminary notes suggest he’ll be framing it as a European speech (“Let me say that you now have the most pro-American European leadership in living memory”). There will be two interesting points to focus on. Firstly, will he send them to sleep? Secondly, how daring will he be with his anti-protectionist message? We’ll find out soon enough.
16:01 – Well it’s getting to that time but Brown still isn’t there. British prime minister are usually enthralled with the lavish praise they receive at events like this in Washington, where critical responses are put to one side when Congress comes together. Tony Blair famously told the attended that it was a better response than he used to. It’ll certainly be a nicer than what Brown is used to.
16:07 – Brown enters the room. There’s a lot of clapping, and he walks down the aisle shaking many, many hands. Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden stand on the podium waiting for him. He finally makes it up there, hands them both a copy of the speech, and prepares to start.
16:08 – But the clapping goes on and on… and on. This is what I mean by overly pleasant. You don’t get this sort of niceness in Britain. Pelosi says she has the “high honour” of introducing him.
16:10 – He starts, sensibly, with praise for America – an “inspiration him and the whole world”. They give him his first standing ovation – they’re very fond of those. “Billions of people look to Washington DC as a shining city lighting up the whole of the world.” He then makes several vaguely predictable statements on Obama – hope, change, that sort of thing.
16:12 – Now praise for Senator Edward Kennedy. Another ovation. He lists his achievements – Northern Ireland, education in developing countries. He announces an honorary knighthood for “Sir Edward Kennedy”. A third ovation. The ovations are becoming increasingly tiresome. Must remember my cultural sensitivities. Now Brown praises America for, basically, winning the Cold War. “Early in my life I came to understand that America is not just the indispensable nation, it is always the irrepressible nation.”
16:15 – “I want to thank you on behalf of the British people,” for standing by the UK in world wars and the fight against fascism. The speech is well written so far – one might even say it had a touch of Obama to it. It’s too painful to contemplate the possibility of this historical praise for America to last for the entire thing. My early hunch is that this is what he uses to sugar coat the subtle mentions of anti-protectionism later. “America kept faith in the future alive for all the world,” he continues. Now we’re on British and American soldiers fighting side by side in Afghanistan and Iraq, as their grandfathers did on the Rhine.
16:17 – UK-US relations are a friendship renewed every generation. Alliances can wither, he says, but our partnership of purpose is “unbreakable”. There is “no power on Earth that can drive us apart.” Hold on – a mention of policy. He calls for a two state solution in the Middle East (modest applause). The UK will work with America to stop nuclear proliferations – we will threaten Iran, but welcome them to rejoin the international community if they stop being threatening themselves (standing ovation again).
16:22 – And we’re onto the recession. He doesn’t see statistics, he sees individuals struggling. “We, the representatives of the people, have to be the people’s last line of defence.” Hard working families need change. We have learned, apparently, that markets should be free, but not “values free” – he wins some applause for this, but it’s clinical. He’s drawing comparisons between personal morality – helping out members of the family – to political morality, like helping out the public. It’s always a dubious connection to make. A strong section follows on riches not being merely for the rich, framed – for safety – by the lessons his father, “a man of the church”, taught him.
16:26 – Should we succumb to protectionism? “No,” he says, with the voice of a matron. His language isn’t subtle at all – he makes a clear case for international trade. “We win our future not be retreating from the world,” but by embracing it. He wants a race to the top, rather than the one to the bottom entailed by protectionism. “In these unprecedented times, we must invest and invent our way out of the downturn. This is not blind optimism. It’s the practical affirmation for our times of our faith in a better future.”
16:28 – “We conquer our fear of the future through our faith in the future,” he continues. “You, the nation that had the vision to put a man on the moon, are also the nation to protect planet Earth.” Not exactly the most radical thing ever, but the intention is clear – use America’s belief in its own leadership to galvanise it into tackling climate change. Little late for this now though – Obama’s in. It would have been far more useful during the Bush years, but back then it was a dangerous thing to say, of course.
16:30 – He goes on to describe Europe as currently being more pro-American than ever before – probably true. He makes his first connection between the US and UK fiscal stimulus plans. How much better would it be if the whole world came together to do this at once? He asks. Then a section on the world uniting to outlaw tax havens and off-shore banking system. Sizeable applause, and even some shouts of agreement follow that, to an extent I wasn’t expecting. This is the meat of Brown’s visit – the call for a global New Deal, which Obama pointedly refused to mention yesterday.
16:34 – At G20 he wants rules and standards for transparency and reward, and these should apply to all banks everywhere, all the time. Occasionally you realise how radical what he’s saying is. You have to give him credit – this is revolutionary stuff, even if his manner of presentation numbs the mind. Perhaps, with proposals as far-reaching as this, that could become a strength.
16:36 – Brown uses an old story he brings up at fairly specific occasions, but it’s one worth repeating. It’s about a child in Rwanda who was tortured to death. His final words were “the United Nations will come to save us”. Brown uses the story to push for his global literacy and education agenda for the developing world. Strong applause. That last section doesn’t appear to be in the version of his speech handed out to the press beforehand.
16:39 – “When the strong help the weak, it makes us all stronger,” he says. In a recession government’s first priority is to help the poor rather than the rich. He goes back to the lessons he took from his father’s church. “Wherever there is suffering, we will never pass by on the other side.” Lots and lots of applause. More vaguely worded glorification of UK-US relations follows, about there not being any struggle the two countries together cannot overcome. “Let us renew our special relationship for our times. With faith in the future let us rebuild tomorrow, today.” And with that he ends to sustained applause and a standing ovation. He slicks his hair to one side and nods his head in a somewhat peculiar way.
16:44 – The applause finally stops and he makes his way back down onto the floor to shake more hands. And that’s that. He appears to be signing autographs. Really. It’s hard to tell how well-received the speech was, given the ceremony here always involves standing ovations and regular applause. It wasn’t exactly a memorable speech, but it’s rare to see Brown so animated and philosophical, so it’s fair to say he lived up to the occasion. Whether that secures him his global New Deal is another matter entirely.
