Expert: Phil Woodford - 11/20/2001

Question
hello,

Is there a feud that exists between robin cook and gordon brown that goes back to the 70s?

cheers


Answer
Hi Ben

I believe this is indeed the case, but only because I have read it in the media - probably in the same papers as you!  I met Gordon Brown very briefly a few years ago to have some pictures taken with him and he seemed a very genuine guy.  I made a feeble joke at his expense during the posing session, which he took in good part, and he didn't look like the kind of bloke who would bear grudges.  However, according to the press, he seems to have long-running battles with any number of other politicians.  In the Sunday papers this week, he apparently has it in for Blunkett, Milburn, Morris, Byers and anyone else who seems to be a potential rival for the Blair succession.  How much of this is mischief making, I don't know.  All these leading politicians have minders and spinmeisters who brief this stuff on their behalf.  But you're never quite sure who's doing the briefing.

The short answer to your question is that I have no personal knowledge of the Brown-Cook relationship: I'm not that close to the New Labour inner circle, I'm afraid.  Two things do occur to me, however.  The first is that Brown and Cook are both ambitious, intellectual men who would be natural rivals.  The second is that Scottish Labour politics has traditionally been a pretty rough and ready.  I encountered a number of Scottish Labour folk in the 1980s and they were tough cookies.

Sorry I can't give a more definitive view.

Best wishes

PW