It may have seemed like everyone hated him, and he maybe wasn't the most charismatic of leaders, but last night Gordon Brown has stepped down from politics so we decided to look at his best bits, because we're nice like that. (and we'll probably skip that time he called a voter a 'bigoted woman' down a microphone he didn't know was on).
When he called a voter a 'bigoted woman' down a microphone he didn't know was on
We changed our minds – you've got to include this because it's great. Just when there was the most amount of pressure on Gordon thanks to the economic crisis and doubts about the strength of his leadership, he interviews a voter on camera and then, off camera, is heard calling her a bigot because he didn't realise his mic was still on. So *Thick Of It *we can't breathe (remember the quiet bat people) (if you haven't seen The Thick Of It then that will make little to no sense).
When he kept us out of the euro
Which would have made our economic recession (that kicked of pretty much the moment he came into power) so much worse. He'll always have that, and his detractors can't argue that it helped.
**When he said he wanted to help women **
It was taken as token soundbites by his critics, and a shallow attempt at grabbing that oft-elusive female vote (guys, we're so elusive!), but he still went on Women's Hour and said he wanted to continue at Labour leader because there's 'more to do for women on maternity pay, and equal pay'. Oh, and that he preferred working with women than men sometimes – but that must be tricky considering the relatively small amount of women knocking around in Parliament. Still, he gave it a bash.
**When he gave that surprisingly charismatic speech **
Ahead of the Scottish referendum a few months back (remember that?), Gordon gave what was probably his most effective speech ever to call for the continued union of the United Kingdom. 'It's not about whether there is a Scottish Parliament – we have it. It's not about whether there are increased powers, we are all agreed to increase the powers. The vote tomorrow is whether you want to break and sever every link, and I say let's keep our UK pensions, let's keep our UK pound, let's keep our UK passports, let's keep our UK welfare state,' he said, rousingly, with political commentaters pointing out this was probably the best speech he'd ever given. Good on you, Gordy.
That time he was a meme
Well, not exactly a meme, but he still gave us some excellent facial expressions – especially when he smiled which, unfortunately, made him look like an alien who had learned about smiling from an audiotape and had never actually seen it done before. Or a crocodile. But that wasn't his fault because he #wokeuplikethis and some of us can't help looking like mannequins while expressing joy.
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.