Peter Morgan's The Deal has an imagined conversation that takes place between Mandy and Brown after the former has chosen to back Blair following John Smith’s death.
PM: Certainly you are seen as the biggest intellectual force and the strategic thinker the party has. No one is saying you would not be capable as leader, merely the timing is bad for you. Lately there have been presentational difficulties.
GB: Oh really. What’s that, PR for Scottish.
PM: It means you alienate people. You can be moody.
GB: Others call it passion.
PM: And intense.
GB: I have high standards.
PM: And intolerant.
GB: I don't countenance fools.
PM: All of which is admirable. But politics is not always about higher matters. Sometimes it is about the ugly business of making friends, keeping friends, being liked.
Fifteen years on, not much has changed.
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