Labour's leading polling adviser urges Miliband brothers to make up and says he intends to die 'a better person'
Philip Gould, Labour's leading polling adviser and strategist for the past two decades, revealed in a moving interview yesterday that he has lost his fight against cancer and that he is now in what he described as the "death zone" after being told by his doctor he has three months to live.
He said he intends to die a better person than he has been, and to be with "the intensity" of his family at his end. He also urged David and Ed Miliband to find a way to resolve their differences and build a public friendship, so ending the "cycle of angularity" that began with Labour's two "near brothers" Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
In recent months, Gould has published a reworked version of his highly acclaimed view of New Labour, The Unfinished Revolution, and a book about his struggle with cancer.
He told the BBC's Andrew Marr: "I think, what better epitaph for the whole book ? that starts with the angularity and the difficulty with the relationship between two almost brothers ending in, I hope, friendship between two real brothers. And I think that may well happen."
Gould has been fighting cancer for two years and was thought to have been in remission, but his doctor, Professor David Cunningham, head of the gastrointestinal unit at Royal Marsden hospital, recently told him he had three months to live.
Gould told the BBC that his wife, Gail, had assumed that three months was the worst case, and he recounted how she then asked, "What's the best case?" The doctor replied: "Three months."
Gould said: "This time it was clear. I was, you know ? I was in a different place, a death zone, where there was such an intensity, such a power. And apparently this is normal. And so even though obviously I'd, you know, rather not be in this position, it is the most extraordinary time of my life, certainly the most important time of my life."
There is still some hope among friends that medicine may allow him to live longer.
Gould has a near legendary status inside the party for the way he urged New Labour thinking on its leaders, deploying focus groups and polling, and delivering three unprecedented election victories for Blair.
He admitted that the intensity of his politics may have contributed to the cancer: "What would have been better for me would have been to have said, 'I'll do what I can do,' which I do quite well, and then just push it back a little bit."
He said he did not because he was "an obsessive nutcase when it comes to politics", adding: "It's certainly true that after the first recurrence, I would not wish to have died the person I was."
He also described with great bravery his current position: "But when you get to the final stage, the death zone, you are dealing with something which is so intense. I mean, I look out of the window and I feel the intensity ? the intensity of my wife, the intensity of my family ? that it is the natural place to be. And to leave this now, to leave this extraordinary place now, I would not want to do that. This is ? this is the final place and the right place for me at this time is to be in the final place."
He also suggested that Blair's private Christianity and spirituality made him a very pragmatic political leader, to the extent that he lacked purpose at times.
He said: "This was a failure. I do think that leadership depends on purpose. I think that individuals depend on purpose. I think politics depend on purpose. I think that in this world, which is so chaotic and so disordered, without purpose, you are lost. It's an essential part of leadership now and I don't think he did that absolutely perfectly."
He also suggested that Ed Miliband had to do more to nail down the issue of the economy, adding: "He has to nail down responsibility and make us the party of the responsible electorate. And I think he has to be tough in the way that he deals with some of these issues. And I think that is the combination that wins the election."
He ended the interview saying: "I was born under a Labour government and I am determined to die under a Labour government. They'll obviously have to get a move on ? but that is what I want to happen. But I suppose my message is have faith and try and change the world."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/18/philip-gould-death-zone
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