Read the blog which broke the story - Comment Central

Gordon Brown was accused last night of rehashing old phrases from Bill Clinton and Al Gore without attribution in his first speech to a Labour conference as Prime Minister.

An analysis by The Times has found strong similarities in both words and structure between Monday’s address and speeches made by the two Americans – both former clients of Mr Brown’s close adviser Bob Shrum.

It suggests that Mr Brown’s recent attempts to appeal as a prime minister who rejects spin have been crafted, at least in part, by one of America’s highest-paid political advertising and speech consultants.

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BACKGROUND

• Sorry story tests Gordon to the limit

• Gordon, how wonderful, wise and talented am I?

• Brown’s brain and his hand are not always connected

• How 'cruel' schooling scarred Brown

Related Links

• Speechwriter lost 8-0 in US presidential matches

• Winning words is now an international market

• Brown lets election fever mount

Multimedia

• Podcast: Matthew Parris on Labour

• Labour Party conference blog

The study by The Times Online’s Comment Central shows a marked similarity between parts of Mr Brown’s speech and big set-piece speeches of Democrat leaders.

They include:
–– Mr Brown: “Sometimes people say I am too serious and I fight too hard and maybe that’s true”; and Al Gore’s 2000 presidential nomination acceptance speech : “I know my own imperfections. I know that sometimes people say I’m too serious, that I talk too much substance and policy.”
–– Mr Brown: “This is my pledge to the British people: I will not let you down;” and Al Gore’s 2000 nomination acceptance speech: “I pledge to you tonight: I will work for you every day and I will never let you down.”
–– Mr Brown said: “This is the century where our country cannot afford to waste the talents of anyone”; and Bill Clinton’s State of the Union address in 1995 : “As we move into this next century, everybody matters; we don't have a person to waste.
–– ”Mr Brown: “This is my pledge to the British people: I will not let you down”; and Al Gore’s 2000 nomination acceptance speech: “I pledge to you tonight: I will work for you every day and I will never let you down.”

Mr Brown also closely followed Mr Shrum’s speeches in structure. They often begin with a story about the candidate’s mother and father and what they taught him. Mr Brown did that on Monday.

He also drew attention to John Smeaton, the Glasgow bomb hero, in his audience on Monday, a move that has become a standard feature of a State of the Union address. Referring to soldiers as the pride of Britain echoed Colin Powell’s description of soldiers as the pride of America.

A senior Democrat strategist involved in previous presidential campaigns also noted the clear parallels with the speeches of John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate , and Ted Kennedy, both of whom worked with Mr Shrum. The strategists pointed to Gordon Brown’s use of the phrase “let us be clear”. “That’s in every one of Kennedy’s speeches written by Shrum.” They added that other devices, such as the use of lessons learnt from parents and balancing work and family, were also frequently employed by both Kerry and Kennedy.

Mr Shrum, who was regularly seen around Downing St in the lead-up to the conference speech, is admired among Democrats but he has never won a Presidential campaign. He was used by President Clinton, although not on the 1992 and 1996 campaigns. Some cruelly ascribed Mr Kerry’s 2004 defeat to the curse of Shrum Last year Mr Shrum gave a seminar for the John Smith Institute entitled Cameron Plagiarizes Bush comparing the Tory leader’s political approach with President Bush.

According to a transcript, Mr Shrum said: “I recently had the dubious privilege of reading speeches and statements in which Cameron and his Conservative associates seek to rebrand themselves. What I read is, to a breath-taking degree, a shameless reprise of Bush’s siren song.”

Chris Grayling, a Tory frontbench spokesman, said: “We all know Gordon Brown’s announcements are reheated, and now his language seems reheated too. This destroys the myth that we are seeing a Prime Minister who has given up spin. Far from being the genuine article, he is just a copycat prime minister rehashing old material from US politicians.”

Andy Burnham, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, last night branded the report as “garbage” that had been fuelled by an “increasingly desperate Tory party”.

“Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, promised in the same newspaper in 2004, that he would bring US-style ‘negative campaigning’ and ‘character attacks’ to British politics, he said.

“But what he needs to understand is that the British people will never respond to the politics of insidious underhand smears.”

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