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My Scotland, Our Britain: A Future Worth Sharing by [Gordon Brown]

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Gordon Brown

My Scotland, Our Britain: A Future Worth Sharing Kindle Edition

by Gordon Brown (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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My Scotland, Our Britain: A Future Worth Sharingis a highly personal account of Gordon Brown's Scotland, the nation he was born in, and our Britain, the multinational state that the Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish have created and share.

Laying bare his family's ancestry over 300 years of the Union and explaining how it shaped his background, Brown charts what it was like growing up in Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s, and explains the influence of religion, education and Scotland's unique industrial structure on the shaping of his and Scotland's identity. He sets out the dramatic economic, social and cultural changes of the past fifty years and the vastly different prospects his children will face, demonstrating that a sense of Scottish national identity has always remained strong and how Scottish institutions have always fiercely guarded their independence.

The referendum should not be seen as a battle between Scotland and Britain, he argues, but one between two visions of Scotland's future: one that sees Scotland prosper with a strong Scottish Parliament that is part of the UK, and one that severs all the political links Scots have with the UK. Brown puts forward his proposal for a constitutional settlement that could unite the country, and argues that in tune with Scotland's history of deep engagement with the wider world -as inventors, explorers, traders, missionaries, business leaders and aid workers -the best future for Scots is not to leave Britain, but to continue to shape it.

Length: 383 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Language: English

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About the Author

Gordon Brown served as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007, making him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history. He has been the Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath since 1983 and is now also the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education. Brown's time as Chancellor began with the granting of independence to the Bank of England and was marked by sustained investment in health, education and in the reduction of poverty and overseas aid. As Prime Minister, Brown's tenure coincided with the global financial crisis, and he was one of the first to initiate calls for coordinated global action and chaired the London Summit of 2009. Brown has a First Class Honours degree and a Doctorate in History from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a lecturer. He is married to Sarah Brown, Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education, and they live in Fife and London with their two sons, John and Fraser. He is the author of several books and the founder, with his wife, of Theirworld, a charity to whom the profits of this book will be donated. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN : B00IQ8QQQU
Publisher : Simon & Schuster UK; UK ed. edition (19 June 2014)
Language : English
File size : 985 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 383 pages
Page numbers source ISBN : 1471137503

Best Sellers Rank: 1,914,110 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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JohnG

UK's Future

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2015

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Delivered as forecast. A reasoned summary of Mr Brown's thoughts and feelings on the UK. I agree with most, if not all, of his conclusions.

2 people found this helpful

Jenny

Good quality, reliable delivery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 December 2015

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Thank you, it's very appreciated it.

One person found this helpful

Thought provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2015

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I really found reading this book. The full text of increased my understanding oo such an important issue for every .The full text of Gordon's speech is contained in this book, it is powerful even in written form. I personally see his intervention as the turning point in encouraging voters to stay in within the Union. Whatever you think about Mr. Brown, he is passionate about Scotland and her role within the United Kingdom.

However, this is a very personal view point and I realise that not everyone will agree with me so read it and make your own mind up.

One person found this helpful

mangilli-climpson m

All about Brown: My Scotland, My Britain, and Me

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2015

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Bright sparks have often said that football is a game of two halves, and though the former Labour Premier Gordon Brown was no Roy of the Rovers, his career in government also spread over two halves: going from idol to idle, hero to zero whether in his failure to call an early election in October 2007, his decision first to boycott and then turning up to sign the Lisbon Treaty in December 2007, his intolerance and anger to less informed "bigoted" members of the public in elections, and towards the Lib Dems in the coalition negotiations following the General election of 2010. Were we for long hoodwinked by the media about the acute brilliance of this individual in international finance, or was he simply lucky to pick up the unrecognised credits of his sleazy predecessors, whereas in reality he was a very frustrated dwarf with multiple complexes; moreover, did voters of Kirkaldy & Cowdenbeath, in Scotland's safest seat, finally move away from Labour towards SNP and Roger Mullin in May 2015 because their favourite son was no longer standing, or were they saying something to this man and his party that they were both part of the despised establishment of Westminster and so little more than "Red" Tories?

In the last days of the Scottish Referendum, in September 2014, Brown was parachuted in as a last ditch stand by an elderly statesman, as it was felt the No - Better Together campaign was losing momentum. My Scotland, Our Britain: A Future Worth Sharing, described by the author as a detached, personal collection of essays - and NOT a political manifesto, is part biographical, and very historical - two thirds of the tome, especially as son of the Manse on the influence of religion: on what makes a Scotsman, what his homeland, Scotland, has done over 300 years in the wider family of British nations, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, followed by something more topical on what the Scottish referendum signified to him, why independence would be a real loss to both Scotland and to the rest of the UK, and what he feels would be acceptable in future.

Though the author realises that the Scotland of his grandparents is dissimilar to the one he lived himself through since 1951, or even the one which his two boys are witnessing in the present century, which is continually evolving rapidly, there is a risk of presenting dated stereotypes which are pointless and only arouses controversy to people demanding instant answers. Like a cuckoo he grabs comfortably old and new Left ideas on "imperialism" and "globalization" into his nest, but stays clear of "New Labour" or the mention of Blair.

Instead, he uses statistical data to show that over time the majority of Scots have ceased to see themselves as British (only 24% see themselves British)unlike the English, have less positive regard for British symbols, the monarchy (only 15% against 50% of English are proud of the Queen, while 55% were not proud), the armed forces, the BBC, the NHS, the Union Flag (for Team GB at the Olympics especially if a Scot and a winner - in that order- was on show), and he does not deny there exist Scots and English alike - a small figure not noted, who despise one another (something no doubt which would have existed throughout history).

Surprisingly, he does not follow up this analysis as might arise in serious studies in order to understand more in full which groups (divided between age, sex, education, occupation, and links with the rest of the UK) among Scots would favour independence, support the then Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, vote or even join the SNP. Brown does make a fleeting comment that the older generations: his own, and pensioners who remember the War and the growth of the welfare state under Attlee's Labour Government tend to be more conservative, meaning pro-Union, and might vote No to independence. Was this an oversight or did he purposely choose controversy for immediate effect among the undecided fellow Scots electorate?

Despite backing the No campaign, Brown was never able to discard his Labour credentials, much less refrain from making political kudos at the expense of temporary allies for future benefits. Gordon Brown, like many Labour contemporaries, love to present themselves as the main pioneers of the welfare state and the NHS, but he maintains here that the idea of universal free national assistance to those in need was historically part of the ethics of close-knit Scottish mining communities, of sharing and pooling resources together to prevent the weakest going under - something which continues with the introduction of a national minimum wage during the Blair Government in 1998.

It is the main idea why funding most R & D for universities, and research institutes at present is organized across the entire UK for the benefit of 60 million, whereas an independent Scotland representing 5 million would in contrast scale down the total which over time would be very detrimental to the future prosperity of all Scots.

Brown hints that it was the nasty Tories - in particular Mrs Thatcher with her "foreign", unScottish beliefs urging excessive personal aspirations of self-advancement and greed, being turned against "collective" working class institutions, that put the working peoples of the four nations against one another; thereby sowing the seeds of tribalism onto the fertile territory of nationalism - which is much to blame for the rise of anger, fanaticism, and the SNP. He claims he could never support the SNP - who only since 2004 have demanded independence as its main constitutional objective (and the break up of the Union), but admits he would give his backing if it meant that it kept the Tories (to complicate matters, known for long in Scotland as the "Unionists") out of power in Westminster because in his opinion "the Conservatives are bad for Scotland". Cameron's reminder, during the 2015 General election, that a vote for Ed Miliband and Labour, should be construed as a vote for a weak minority government, for chaos, and for the SNP under the popular, vivacious new chief, and Scotland's current First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, demanding independence - is something which the elderly Labour former Premier alone had already hinted in this tome months earlier. Was this another of his many embarrassing chasms he climbed down into?

Without using the term, Brown should rightly consider himself a British "federalist", and throughout the independence debate, the plan to expand the powers of the Scottish Parliament was not an end in itself, but a Baldrick cunning plan in the evolution, the modernisation, and continuation rather than the dissolution of the UK. This goes ideally with the Supreme Court which he instigated, the new Declaration of Independence he proposes, but no mention of a future President is expected. Interdependence, sharing, pooling, are his constant key terms. He does not, however, stress that these ideas are not the exclusive property of him, nor of Labour, including his departed devolution friend Donald Dewar. He says nothing. They were part of century long dreams of the Liberals first under Gladstone in 1880s, and much later by their leader Joe Grimond. Why the silence? Surely, that is pooling and sharing of ideas.

If Brown was unable to stop playing party politics with the Tories, or give any credit to the Lib Dems, when they were supposed to be allies, it is hardly surprising that Brown and Labour could be thought honest or trustworthy. One question anyone should ask: how can one really declare that a book is not a political manifesto when one is trying to inform and urge the electorate to vote in a particular manner, offering solutions, as well as misinforming them of all the facts?

Salmond, Sturgeon, and the SNP were perfectly right to criticize the BBC for behaving as the organ of lies of the British establishment, and urged all Scots to fight on in greater unity against London and old, unpatriotic Scots. They could have reminded Labour of what their great Gordon Brown was already doing, and present him as the Yes' secret weapon, or the "enemy within" in the No campaign, but no one would have believed them, and Brown would either have bottled up or angrily denied everything like the bad boy caught smoking behind the bike sheds.

For me, the author's honesty as a Scotsman first, should have been to admit to a wider British reading audience, as one Scottish commentator, Allan Massie, did that should the unlikely have arisen and Scotland had voted for independence in September 2014 even with a small margin, Brown might have reconciled himself to the people's voice and the new order. As a realist, he would not have imagined a great exodus of dismayed Unionists. A few rich - not all Tories, might have sold up; others may have thoughts, followed by brief, then longer mixed "we'll see" sensations, and staying put probably indefinitely, because no matter how strong their feelings, links, and roots lie deeply entrenched with the Union since 1707, their attachment to Bonnie Scotland, as that smart political calculator Salmond knows very well, is often much stronger.

Personally, Gordon Brown should have renamed his book as "My Scotland, My Britain, and Me", because like a tetchy, thin skinned Prima donna to criticism he claimed all that was good during his period in Government was solely due to him, believe it or else. Maybe he thinks the future Federal President is just around the corner. If you are an admirer of Gordon do read it just to believe, but remember those with inflated egos only have one thing on their mind, and that's not you.

3 people found this helpful

Cat

Great Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 November 2015

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Great read

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