January 17, 2007
Gordon Brown’s Big Brother hell
When Gordon Brown arrived in India for his first ever trip, he probably thought he had a clear idea of what would be involved. The British chancellor would visit Bangalore to get a first-hand look at the Indian hi-tech miracle; he would discuss important issues of world trade in an effort to re-start the WTO’s Doha round; he would make a speech or two, burnishing his credentials as an international statesman and a prime minister in-waiting. Hell, if he was lucky, he might even get time to take in a bit of culture - the Taj Mahal, that sort of thing.
What the chancellor cannot have imagined is that he would be dragged into a diplomatic incident, sparked by events in a reality TV show back in Britain.
Yet this is exactly what has happened. The travails of an Indian actress appearing on Celebrity Big Brother (an increasingly tawdry, and therefore popular, show) have sparked newspaper headlines in India and condemnation by leading politicians.
This kind of thing is not familiar territory for Brown, who prides himself on his seriousness. So far his occasional efforts to sound like he is in touch with popular culture have tended to be embarrassing. His suggestion that he is a fan of the "Arctic Monkeys", a pop band, were so lacking in credibility - and attracted so much derision - that Brown himself had to back-track. In his Labour Party conference speech last September, he ended up admitting that he is actually more interested in the Arctic than the Arctic Monkeys.
Brown has found something formulaic to say about the Big Brother controversy in India. But if and when he achieves his ambition to be prime minister, he better get used to talking about this sort of thing. It is the stuff of modern politics - and very few modern politicians are any good at it.
The point was made to me recently by a senior politician who is a longstanding member of the French Socialist party - and indeed one of those tipped as a possible future prime minister, if Segolene Royal wins the French presidency in May. The politician in question is noted for his seriousness, and has come to realise that this is a definite disadvantage. "You know", he said, "I’m an old-fashioned sort of politician. I have views on world trade, on government spending and that sort of thing. But I really have no view about whether women should wear thongs. But, unfortunately for me, the public cares more about thongs than world trade." This is a truth that Mme Royal realised long ago. She has a very clear position on thongs - although she is rather vaguer on dull questions like nuclear proliferation and Turkey’s bid to join the EU.
It is quite likely that by July, Gordon Brown will be Britain’s prime minister and Mme Royal will be president of France. She can doubtless look forward to a few fascinating Brownite sermons on the evils of the Common Agricultural Policy and the importance of the UN’s Millennium goals. But perhaps Mr Brown should try and turn the conversation towards thongs and reality TV. He might learn a thing or two.
