Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Politician, leader of the Labour Party and Her Majesty's Opposition, known for his dedication to reform and unswerving focus on victory.
On the island
Eight records
it's an album that I started to listen to a lot when I first became leader and I was sort of making big speeches in the comments and occasionally put something on and the the the title of the song is Cancel Today, which is about you know wanting today to go away which is usually how I feel every Tuesday and Thursday when Prime Minister's questions comes along.
Dad, after after he uh had the stroke and began to re re recover, he actually was a very, very good penis, my father, and he lost it when he when he had the stroke, he lost the the ability to play and he then learnt to play a little bit again and he used to play some of the Beatles songs.
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
I like Bruce Springsteen tremendously, and this is one of the early tracks of his that that uh Cherie and I used to listen to together from time to time,'cause I I had this extremely grotty flat in uh St John's Wood, just round the corner from where she used to live, and we used to play this song.
Ralph Kirshbaum and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste
I didn't really hear it properly until I was writing my conference speech this year and I was staying at a friend's house and and suddenly the the music came on and I I I think it's a wonderful and inspirational piece of music.
I heard it first when it was recorded by Cream and a whole lot of others. When I I was uh the first b rock music I really came to was the sort of Yard Birds and Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and Cream and all the rest of it, but I came then later across this version of it, which is the original version, which I think is absolutely fantastic.
the guy who's the the the lead singer here was the the person whose voice I always wanted to emulate, because it he's uh Paul Rodgers' name is great.
Recuerdos de la AlhambraFavourite
it was played by a a friend of mine who's uh flamenco guitarist, Pacopenya, and he very kindly tried to teach me how to play at home.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:49Do you feel guilty about not being able to supply enough [time and energy to your family]?
I feel worried about it. It's a decision once I decided to go for the leadership that inevitably meant there were going to be strains on the family, but then it was what I thought was right to do, and I I wanted to do it. I think if you are in politics and you decide it's the right thing to do, you've got to go for it.
Presenter asks
2:19How difficult was it to say, "Gordon [Brown], I'm sorry, but I gotta do this"?
It was difficult at discussing it, obviously, and I'd always assumed that he would be the leader of the Labour Party, and I I've always had a huge and still have a huge admiration for him. ... Once it happened, once John died and we had to come to the decision, then we did discuss it. And I think it is a mark and measure of Gordon and the type of person he is that in the end we were able to agree it.
Presenter asks
10:54What are your memories of that day [your father had a stroke]?
I remember uh being woken in the morning by my mother'cause we were about to go to to school. You have a sense as a child immediately that something is wrong. and I remember becoming very, very upset. and then she said, Well, you know, dad had um wasn't very well and ... we got through the day somehow, and it became apparent by the end of the day that end of the day that he was actually going to live. So that was, you know, lots of. That was a great relief.
The keepsakes
The luxury
If I took the record, you see, I could complete learning how to play it
Presenter asks
22:44Why should you have sacked Harriet [Harman over her school choice]?
No, absolutely not. What what we probably should have done is been out there far quicker, saying what had happened and explaining the circumstances of it.
Presenter asks
26:41How do you and John Major differ fundamentally? What's between you?
what is between us. I mean, I hope in in the political debates Over the last hundred years in this country, they've been between people who are decent and want the country to be better. I mean, the question is how?
“I'd prefer to be a junior minister in a government than leader of a perpetual opposition.”
“The single greatest difficulty we've had in changing has been this belief that if you change, you become unprincipled. That is absurd. Principles are for all time. But policies and practical programmes will vary from generation to generation.”
“When someone very close to you dies You you're brought up short with the nature of life and the the fact that if you want to do certain things you better get on and do them.”
“I've got an obligation to to my boy as his father. And we've got an obligation to him as parents. We're not going to put it to a particular school because it happens to be convenient to do so.”