IN 1983 George Brown, once a leading figure in the Labour Party - Deputy Leader, acting leader after the death of Hugh Gaitskell, and, later, Foreign Secretary under Harold Wilson - came to Glasgow to campaign for his new party, the SDP.
Our Scottish Political Correspondent, William Clark, reported that Lord George-Brown “was quite touched by the number who recognised him” on his election comeback, though “at first he showed all the signs of a former political heavyweight suffering badly from the rustiness of being out of the public ring.” In Victoria Road [main image] “he came out of his corner warily, a shock of white hair, understandably given his 68 years, but wearing his adopted colours. There were distinct signs of stiffness, few signs of the old, bubbling George Brown so beloved by the headline writers”.
Before long, however, 10 passers-by had all told him that they would be voting for the SPD-Liberal Alliance; and he was gratified that so many people still knew who he was, remembered him from his time in Labour.
“The old warhorse”, wrote Clark, “was scenting there was really nothing to fear and started to punch his weight”. Eventually, he arrived at Rutherglen’s Main Street, and “all the old magic, the political ringcraft, was back in evidence”. He posed for photographs with babies and chatted to voters, then went on to Govan and Castlemilk.
Two years later, however, the Herald was publishing George Brown’s obituary, upon his death at the age of 70. “He was an impulsive and volatile man possessed of enormous charm and intelligence. He also had imaginative flair and the sort of courage indispensable to political success. These qualities, allied to a capacity for hard work, should have ensured his way to the top - and they almost did. They were, however, undermined by an unpredictability almost amounting to eccentricity which made him a political handicap to his party and his friends.
“He had a generous, sometimes swaggering style - and was by far the best open-air speaker of recent times. It would be wrong to suggest he lacked tact, for he sometimes had it to a conspicuous degree, but it could not always be depended on. He had a tendency to blow up, or, though less frequently, give way to tears, for he was an emotional man”.
Brown, who is pictured above addressing the STUC in Rothesay in 1965, had entered Parliament in 1945. He held minor office in the Attlee government but rose to prominence in the 1960s. In 1963 he was acutely disappointed when Labour MPs plumped not for him but for Wilson as successor to Gaitskell. Brown had various key posts in the Wilson governments, but resigned in 1968.
He had “many of the lineaments of greatness”, the obituary said, “and it is intriguing to speculate about what might have been had Labour MPs had the nerve to make him leader in 1963”.Read more: Herald Diary
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