Gordon Brown's book boasts clunking title - and will be serialised next week

By Paul Goodman

The Times (£) has the story as an "exclusive", which suggests it also has the serial rights.  And the Guardian has the first interview with Brown since he left office - part of the pre-publication preparation.

It reports -

"Gordon Brown is poised to break his seven-month silence on his election defeat with a staunch defence of the economic policy that led to Labour being labelled “deficit-deniers”.  The former Prime Minister’s book on the British and international banking crisis will be serialised next week.

In it he is expected to confirm suggestions that he feared being forced to resign on October 8, 2008, the day he ordered the partial nationalisation of ailing banks.

But Mr Brown, who is said to be deeply frustrated about persistent criticism of his legacy, will stand by his decision to try to draw a sharp contrast between Labour’s stance on the £160 billion budget deficit and that of the Conservatives.

Mr Brown’s book is entitled Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalisation. The serious title was chosen by Mr Brown to show that he had no intention of rushing into the usual style of political memoir that involve attacks on former colleagues."

In the Guardian interview, Brown says that he's not going to the Lords (although his words suggest that this may be a short-term view), tours his constituency, preaches international financial reform, and when questioned about Blair, says -

"I am not going to get into an argument with Tony or anybody else about the past. We are way beyond that. The public is not interested. They have had enough." Has he read the Blair memoirs? "No." How about Peter Mandelson's? "No. You have to live in the future, not the past." Doesn't he feel the urge to pen his own account of his decade as chancellor and almost three years as PM, just to set the record straight? "I am not interested in gossip. I am not saying 'never' but I am better concentrating on the things I am doing."

And here he is on the economy -

"Let's see what happens," he says. "I was unable to persuade people that my economic policy for the future was the right one. People will judge by what happens over the next few years whether I was right. I am not going to be dogmatic but the policies I am proposing are far more comprehensive than those being pursued at the moment." He foresees problems in keeping down unemployment, "and what is the purpose of economic policy if not to make sure that people have jobs?"

Tony Blair's memoirs suggested that the Coalition's deficit reduction policy is right.  Brown will say it's wrong.  Another headache for Unready Eddie.