Barack Obama’s A Promised Land: What the 44th President thought of Gordon Brown and David Cameron

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler117 November 2020

In his memoir "A Promised Land" released today, former US President Barack Obama reveals his impressions of “dour” Gordon Brown and the “studied informality” of David Cameron.

According to Mr Obama, the former Labour Prime Minister had not been blessed with Tony Blair’s charisma: “He lacked the sparkly political gifts of his predecessor.”

Mr Obama also notes that seemingly every media mention he read of Mr Brown contained the term “dour”.

However, he credits Mr Brown for his understanding of global finance, writing: “I was fortunate to have him as a partner during those early months of the crisis.”

Mr Obama has more to say about Mr Cameron, who was Prime Minister for six of his eight years in office.

He writes that Mr Cameron possessed “the easy confidence of someone who’d never been pressed too hard by life,” while praising him for being “a willing partner on a host of international issues,” from climate change to international development.

He also comments on the former Tory leader’s apparent informality with regards to attire. “At every international summit, the first thing he’d do was take off his jacket and loosen his tie.”

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In the book, the first of two planned volumes, Mr Obama fondly recalls the visit by First Lady Michelle Obama to Elizabeth Anderson School, an all-girls school in Islington, North London.

“Michelle revelled in such reactions, able to connect with kids of any age or background, and apparently that magic travelled well.

“The girls – working class many of them of West Indian or South Asian descent – listened in rapt attention as this glamorous woman insisted that she had once been just like them.”

Mrs Obama later said that the 2009 school visit had made her feel “her old self” for the first time since becoming First Lady.

The president also touches on the controversy surrounding the Obamas’ visit to Buckingham Palace, when the First Lady was photographed with her hand around The Queen’s shoulder: a breach of protocol.

Despite the ensuing furore in the media, he writes: “The Queen didn’t seem to mind."

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