Time for Brown to get personal

GORDON Brown's performance yesterday showed everything you don't normally get from David Cameron. Detailed and definitive, the Prime Minister was also dogmatic and fell into the trap of reeling off lists of statistics and Labour achievements without engaging with the subtleties of voters' questions.

In an age when personality politics rules public debate, it is a problem for Mr Brown. Appearing at a Yorkshire Post readers' event in Leeds, it was on the occasions when he departed from his economic mantras – listening to the concerns of Bradford right-to-die campaigner Debbie Purdy, and predicting that unemployment could rise after the election – that he was most articulate.

These were also some of the most important moments. Mr Brown has made great play of the fragility of the economic recovery but the choice of words reflected the fact that public sector cuts, and a spike in the number of people out of work, are inevitable whoever wins the election. Yorkshire was hit particularly hard by the financial crisis and has already seen thousands of jobs disappear; it cannot afford another epidemic of unemployment.

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With Mrs Purdy, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, the emphasis was about the personal rather than the public. In praising her as a "very brave person and a very brave campaigner" but insisting that the current law must stand, Mr Brown showed a compassion and a sense of engagement that he has been accused of lacking.

It is this that will play a strong part in his fate at the ballot box. After 13 years at the centre of British politics, Mr Brown's views and policies have been repeated countless times. Now, with the polls narrowing and only weeks to go until the General Election, it is how well he understands the concerns of ordinary Britons that will make a difference.

Labour saved the banking system from collapse but relying on past achievements is not enough. Yesterday, Mr Brown faced unfiltered questions for the first time since the campaign began. If he is to complete an electoral comeback worthy of Lazarus, he has to get out more, meet voters – and prove he is listening.