Friday, May 18, 2007

Gordon Brown Truly Humbled

I’m intrigued by the use of the word, “humbled”, in this context:

Gordon Brown says he is "truly humbled" by the scale of the backing given to him by Labour MPs as their choice to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister.
Mr Brown was supported by so many Labour MPs his only rival could not get enough backers to trigger a contest.

Wouldn’t “truly proud of myself” be a more honest phrase? Or, in this case, does “truly humbled” mean exactly the same thing?

2 comments:

Mark Granier said...

Thanks for your kind words about my book on The Poem Rob.

Re Gordon Brown, good point. The inappropriate language reminds me of Blair's recent excuse for his massive fuckups (e.g. an Inexcusable War). Apparently he was only "doing what he thought was best for his country."

Andrew Shields said...

It's considered arrogant to be proud of oneself these days.

It is also apparently considered acceptable to obfuscate.