First, Matthew Parris here in yesterday's Times:
I heard last week from a most unpolitical friend who, for £75, had agreed to take part in a forum organised jointly by the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Fawcett Society, to examine and discuss the problems of single mothers.
On arriving the young mothers were told they were to have a special guest. It turned out to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
My friend, who had not been unsympathetic to Mr Brown, had until then only seen him on TV. She said he was a dreadful disappointment. In fact she was shocked by how bad he was. A forced smile, a prescripted announcement, for which this visit and these women were really just the media frame, and an apparent inability (or disinclination) to listen to or engage with what any of them were saying, answer their questions or show openness to their ideas and testimony left her feeling cheated and angry.
Second, Gaby Hinsliff here in The Observer:
There was little left of the complimentary chocolates but a few scrunched-up sweet papers by the time Gordon Brown arrived. So much, joked the Chancellor ruefully to a ripple of laughter, for government efforts on healthy eating.
And with the ice broken, he was off: chatting away about disciplining kids, pre-watershed sex on TV, and whether teachers should be paid more if they stay at one school for long enough to give pupils continuity.
At each of the eight tables packed with parents at the private seminar on families he attended last month in London, the conversation flowed easily. Summing up at the end, the famously defensive Chancellor even admitted he might have to reconsider issues such as whether grandparents should be paid by the state for looking after their own grandchildren. He finished with a grinning testimony to the 'incredible' joys of parenthood.
Which represents the real Chancellor? Your guess is as good as mine...
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