Reconciliation in UK could take a generation, says Gordon Brown

The divisions in the UK are so deep and pervasive that reconciliation could take a generation, Gordon Brown has said. The country was facing competing visions of its future: isolated, inward-looking and disengaged, or open, outward-facing and internationalist, the former prime minister said. Speaking at the launch of Christian Aid Week in Westminster on Sunday morning, Brown set out a passionate defence of the international aid budget and the importance of the fight against global poverty before addressing the themes behind the Brexit debate. The UK had endured three years of “almost internecine division”, he said. The debate triggered by the Brexit referendum raised a fundamental disagreement about what it means to be British. “And I’ll be honest, my worry is that the divisions in our country are now so deep and so pervasive that it could take a generation for us to reconcile these differences, bring people together and find a unifying vision of our country and a sense of purpose and direction that takes us forward into the modern world,” Brown said.