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The Rt Hon
Gordon Brown
MP
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Incumbent
Assumed office
27 June 2007
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byTony Blair
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office
2 May 1997 – 27 June 2007
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byKenneth Clarke
Succeeded byAlistair Darling
Member of Parliament
for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath
Dunfermline East (1983-2005)
Incumbent
Assumed office
9 June 1983
Preceded byNew Constituency
Majority18,216 (43.6%)
Personal details
Born (1951-02-20) 20 February 1951 (age 73)
Govan, Glasgow, Scotland
Political partyLabour
SpouseSarah Brown
ChildrenJohn and James Fraser
Residence10 Downing Street
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionAcademic (Historian); (Journalist)
SignatureFile:Gordon Brown's signature.png
For the sportsmen, see Gordon Brown (disambiguation).

Dr James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (together with the First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service) and the leader of the Labour Party since 27 June 2007. Until then he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Tony Blair from 1997 and has been the Member of Parliament (for current Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency) since 1983.[1]

Early life and career before parliament

Gordon Brown was born in Govan, in Glasgow,[2][3] although media[4][5] have occasionally given his place of birth as Giffnock, Renfrewshire, where his parents were living at the time.

His father, John Ebenezer Brown, was a Church of Scotland minister. He was a strong influence on Brown and died in 1998, aged 84. His mother Elizabeth, known as Bunty, died in 2004 aged 86. Gordon was brought up with his brothers John and Andrew Brown in a manse in Kirkcaldy - the largest town in Fife, Scotland across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. In common with many other notable Scots, he is therefore often referred to as a "son of the manse". Brown was educated first at Kirkcaldy West Primary School where he was selected for an experimental fast stream education programme, which took him two years early to Kirkcaldy High School for an academic hothouse education taught in separate classes. At age 16 he wrote that he loathed and resented this "ludicrous" experiment on young lives.[6]

He was accepted by the University of Edinburgh to study history at the age of only 16. He suffered a retinal detachment after being kicked in the head during an end-of-term rugby union match at his old school. He was left blind in his left eye, despite treatment including several operations and lying in a darkened room for weeks at a time. He has since been fitted with an artificial eye.[7] Later at Edinburgh, while playing tennis, he noticed the same symptoms in his right eye. After undergoing experimental surgery at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary the eye was saved, ensuring he did not go totally blind.[8]

Brown graduated from Edinburgh with First Class Honours M.A. in 1972, and stayed on to complete his Ph.D. (which he gained in 1982), titled The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918-29. According to biographer Tom Bower, Brown originally intended his thesis to cover the development of the Labour movement from the seventeenth century onwards, but evolved to more modestly describe "Labour's struggle to establish itself as the alternative to the Conservatives [in the early part of the 20th century]".

In 1972, while still a student, Brown was elected Rector[9] of the University of Edinburgh, the convener of the University Court. Brown served as Rector until 1975, and he also edited The Red Paper on Scotland.[10] Brown served as a temporary lecturer at Edinburgh, but was denied a permanent post due to his political activism.[11] Instead he gained employment as a lecturer in Politics at Glasgow College of Technology from 1976 to 1980. He then worked as a journalist at Scottish Television, later serving as current affairs editor until his election to parliament in 1983.

In the 1979 general election, Brown stood for the Edinburgh South constituency, but lost to the Conservative candidate, Michael Ancram.

Election to parliament and opposition

Brown was elected to Parliament on his second attempt as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983 general election and became opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry in 1985. In 1986, he published a biography of the Independent Labour Party politician James Maxton, the subject of his Ph.D. thesis. Brown was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1987 to 1989 and then Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, before becoming Shadow Chancellor in 1992.

After the sudden death of Labour leader John Smith in May 1994, Brown was tipped as a potential party leader,[12] but did not contest the leadership after Tony Blair became favourite. It has long been rumoured a deal was struck between Blair and Brown at the Granita restaurant in Islington,[13] in which Blair promised to give Brown control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing against him in the leadership election.[14] Whether this is true or not, the relationship between Blair and Brown has been central to the fortunes of "New Labour", and they have mostly remained united in public, despite reported serious private rifts.[15]

As Shadow Chancellor, Brown worked to present himself as a fiscally competent Chancellor-in-waiting, to reassure business and the middle class that Labour could be trusted to run the economy without fuelling inflation, increasing unemployment, or overspending – legacies of the 1970s. He publicly committed Labour to following the Conservatives' spending plans for the first two years after taking power.[16][17]

Following a reorganisation of parliamentary constituencies in Scotland, Brown became MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath at the 2005 election.[18]

Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer

Gordon Brown speaking at the annual World Bank/IMF meeting in 2002
See also Chancellorship of Gordon Brown

Brown's ten years and two months as Chancellor of the Exchequer set several records. He was the longest-serving Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer ever, ahead of Denis Healey, who was Chancellor for 5 years and 2 months from 5 March 1974 to 4 May 1979. On 15 June 2004, he became the longest continuous serving Chancellor of the Exchequer since the Reform Act 1832 (before that, Nicholas Vansittart holds the record with 1812-1823), passing the figure of 7 years and 43 days set by David Lloyd George (1908–1915). However, William Gladstone was Chancellor for a total of 12 years and 4 months in four distinct terms between 1852 and 1882.

Brown stated his Chancellorship had seen the longest period of sustained economic growth in the history of the United Kingdom,[19][20] although part of this growth period started under the preceding Conservative government in 1993, and the details in Brown's growth figures have been challenged.[21][22]

Bank of England Independence

On taking office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Brown gave the Bank of England operational independence in monetary policy, and thus responsibility for setting interest rates. However, soon afterwards, Brown sold off much of Britain's gold reserves (at the bottom of the market) losing the Exchequer over $3 billion.

Taxation and spending

In the 1997 election and subsequently, Brown pledged to not increase the basic or higher rates of income tax. Over his Chancellorship, he reduced the starting rate from 20% to 10% in 1999 before abolishing the starting rate in 2007, and reduced the basic rate from 23% to 20%. However, in all but his final budget, Brown increased the tax thresholds in line with inflation, rather than earnings, resulting in fiscal drag. Corporation tax fell under Brown, from a main rate of 33% to 28%, and from 24% to 19% for small businesses.[23]

Under Brown, telecom radio frequency auctions gathered £22.5 billion for the government. By using a system of sealed bids and only selling a restricted number of licences, they extracted high prices from the telecom operators.[24]. Germany at this time applied a similar auction, and these together caused a severe recession in the European telecoms development industry (2001 Telecoms crash) with the loss of 100,000 jobs across Europe, 30,000 of those in the UK.[25]

Once the two-year period of following the Conservative's spending plans was over, Brown's 2000 Spending Review outlined a major expansion of government spending, particularly on health and education. In his April 2002 budget, Brown raised national insurance to pay for health spending. Brown changed tax policy in other ways, such as the working tax credits.

The Centre for Policy Studies found that the poorest fifth of households, which accounted for 6.8% of all taxes in 1996-7, accounted for 6.9% of all taxes paid in 2004-5. Meanwhile, their share of state benefit payouts dropped from 28.1% to 27.1% over the same period.[26]

According to the OECD UK taxation has increased from a 39.3% share of gross domestic product in 1997 to 42.4% in 2006, going to a higher level than Germany.[27] This increase has mainly been attributed to active government policy, and not simply to the growing economy.

The Conservatives have accused Brown of imposing "stealth taxes". A commonly reported example resulted in 1997 from a technical change in the way corporation tax is collected, the indirect effect of which was for the dividends on stock investments held within pensions to be taxed, thus lowering pension returns and contributing to the demise of some pension funds.[28] The Treasury contend that this tax change was crucial to long-term economic growth: the existing corporation tax system created biased incentives for corporations to pay out profits as dividends to shareholders (including pension funds, who could then reclaim the tax paid) rather than to reinvest them into company growth (which would result in corporation tax being paid). The old system of corporation tax was widely viewed by economists as a constraint on British economic growth.[29]

Growth development and employment

Brown pointed to two main accomplishments: growth and employment. An OECD report[30] shows UK economic growth averaged 2.7% between 1997 and 2006, higher than the Eurozone's 2.1%, though lower than in any other English-speaking country. UK unemployment is 5.5%,[31] down from 7% in 1997 and lower than the Eurozone's average of 8.1%.

In October 1997, Brown took control of the United Kingdom's membership of the European single currency issue by announcing the Treasury would set five economic tests[32] to ascertain whether the economic case had been made. In June 2003 the Treasury indicated the tests had not been passed.[33]

File:G8brown.JPG
Gordon Brown meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2006

Between 1999 and 2002 Brown sold 60% of the UK's gold reserves at $275 an ounce.[34] It was later attacked as a "disastrous foray into international asset management"[35] as he had sold at close to a 20-year low. He pressured the IMF to do the same,[36] but it resisted.

Brown believes it is appropriate to remove much of the unpayable Third World debt but does not think all debt should be wiped out.[37]

On 20 April 2006, in a speech to the United Nations Ambassadors, Brown outlined a "Green" view of global development.

Higher education

In 2000, Brown started a political row about higher education (referred to as the Laura Spence Affair) when he accused the University of Oxford of elitism in its admissions procedures, describing its decision not to offer a place to state school pupil Laura Spence as "absolutely outrageous".[38] Lord Jenkins, then Oxford Chancellor, said "nearly every fact he used was false."[39]

During a diplomatic visit to India in January 2007, Brown responded to questions concerning perceived racism and bullying against Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on the British reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother saying, "There is a lot of support for Shilpa. It is pretty clear we are getting the message across. Britain is a nation of tolerance and fairness."[40] He later said the debate showed Britain wanted to be "defined by being a tolerant, fair and decent country."[41]

Run up to succeeding Blair

Main articles Labour Party leadership election, 2007 and Timeline for the Labour Party leadership elections, 2007

In October 2004 Tony Blair announced he would not lead the party into a fourth general election, but would serve a full third term. Political controversy over the relationship between Brown and Blair continued up to and beyond the 2005 election, which Labour won with a reduced parliamentary majority and reduced vote share. The two campaigned together but the British media remained – and remain – full of reports on their mutual acrimony.

Blair, under pressure from within his own party, announced on 7 September 2006 that he would step down within a year.[42] Brown was the clear favourite to succeed Blair for several years with experts and the bookmakers; he was the only candidate spoken of seriously in Westminster. Appearances and news coverage leading up to the handover were interpreted as preparing the ground for Brown to become Prime Minister, in part by creating the impression of a statesman with a vision for leadership and global change.

Brown is the first prime minister from a Scottish constituency since the Conservative/SUP Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1964. He is also one of only four Prime Ministers who attended a university other than Oxford or Cambridge, along with the Earl of Bute (Leiden), Lord John Russell (Edinburgh) and Neville Chamberlain (Mason Science College, later Birmingham).[43] Many Prime Ministers were not university-educated at all, including the Duke of Wellington, Benjamin Disraeli, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, James Callaghan and John Major.

On 9 September 2006 Charles Clarke said in an interview that the Chancellor had "psychological" issues he must confront and accused him of being a "control freak" and "totally uncollegiate". Brown was also "deluded", Clarke said, to think Blair can and should anoint him as his successor now.[44]

By the start of 2007, prospects of any significant current or former Cabinet-level contender to Brown receded significantly, and Brown's odds with major bookmakers became as short as 1/10 on. A number of those tipped as potential rivals ruled themselves out – notably Education Secretary Alan Johnson, who declared he would contest the deputy leadership, and Environment Secretary David Miliband, who stressed his support for Brown[45] to close down speculation of a possible challenge. Despite his disavowals, attempts to draft Miliband to run continued, with the launch of a website by former Ministers Alan Milburn and Charles Clarke, obstensibly to debate policy, but widely viewed as an attempt to test the water. However, this widely-covered initiative was also seen as a sign of weakness as the project appeared to have no credible champion to carry the banner in a leadership contest. Only candidates from the left of the party, John McDonnell and former Environment minister Michael Meacher declared their willingness to contest the election; each needed to gain 44 nominations from Labour MPs required to be successfully nominated. Either would have been rank outsiders in a contest. With growing realisation both could not be nominated and that both standing was likely to lead to neither being nominated, they agreed they would compare nominations when Blair stepped down and the candidate with the lower number of nominations would withdraw and urge his supporters to nominate the other.

From January 2007 the media reported Brown had now "dropped any pretence of not wanting, or expecting, to move into Number 10 in the next few months" – although he and his family will likely use the more spacious 11 Downing Street.[46] This enabled Brown to signal the most significant priorities for his agenda as Prime Minister - stressing education, international development, narrowing inequalities (to pursue 'equality of opportunity and fairness of outcome'), renewing Britishness, restoring trust in politics, and winning hearts and minds in the war on terror as key priorities - speaking at a Fabian Society conference on 'The Next Decade' in January 2007.[47]

In March 2007 Brown's character was attacked by Lord Turnbull who worked for Brown as Permanent Secretary at the Treasury from 1998 to 2002. Turnbull accused Brown of running the Treasury with "Stalinist ruthlessness" and treating Cabinet colleagues with "more or less complete contempt".[48] This was especially picked-up on by the British media as the comments were made on the eve of Brown's budget report.

Bid for Labour Leadership

In his resignation speech on 10 May 2007, Tony Blair stated he would stand down as Prime Minister on 27 June.[49] After years of speculation, Gordon Brown formally announced on 11 May his bid for the Labour leadership. Brown launched his campaign website the same day as formally announcing his bid for leadership "Gordon Brown for Britain". On 16th, the Wednesday following this announcement it became clear no other candidate would gain enough nominations to get on the ballot paper with Brown. On Channel 4 news on 16 May 2007 it was announced Andrew Mackinlay had nominated Brown giving him 308 nominations, sufficient to avoid a leadership contest. He formally became Leader of the Labour party at a special Party Conference held in Manchester on 24 June.

Brown as Prime Minister

See also Premiership of Gordon Brown

Brown ceased to be Chancellor and, upon the approval of HM Queen Elizabeth II, became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 27 June 2007. Like all Prime Ministers, Brown concurrently serves as the First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service, is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and, hence, also a Privy Counsellor. He is also Leader of the Labour Party and Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Policies

Brown has been careful not to suggest that there will be any U-turns in the key areas of Blair's social policy, or any radical breakaway from New Labour. He has, however, proposed a different style of government to Blair's sometimes-criticised "presidential-style" government.[50] He has proposed moving some traditional prime ministerial powers conferred by royal prerogative to the realm of Parliament, such as the power to declare war and approve appointments to senior positions. Brown wants Parliament to gain the right to ratify treaties and have more oversight into the intelligence services. He has also proposed moving some powers from Parliament to citizens, including the right to form "citizen's juries", easily petition Parliament for new laws, and rally outside Westminster. He has asserted that the attorney general should not have the right to decide whether to prosecute in individual cases, such as in the loans for peerages scandal.[51]

During his Labour leadership campaign, Brown proposed some policy initiatives and was not clear on certain parts of his policies,[citation needed] but suggested that a Brown-led government would introduce the following:[52][53]

  • End to corruption Following the cash for honours scandal, Brown emphasised cracking down on corruption. This has led to a belief that Brown will introduce a new ministerial code which sets out clear standards of behaviour for ministers.
  • Constitutional reform Brown has not stated whether he proposes a U.S.-style written constitution – something the UK has never had – or a looser bill of rights. He said in a speech when announcing his bid that he wants a “better constitution” that is “clear about the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen in Britain today”. He plans to set up an all-party convention to look at new powers for Parliament. This convention may also look at rebalancing powers between Whitehall and local government. Brown has said he will give Parliament the final say on whether British troops are sent into action in future.
  • Housing House planning restrictions are likely to be relaxed. Brown said he wants to release more land and ease access to ownership with shared equity schemes. He backed a proposal to build five new eco-towns, each housing between 10,000 and 20,000 homeowners — up to 100,000 new homes in total.
  • Health Brown intends to have doctors' surgeries open at the weekends, and GPs on call in the evenings. Doctors were given the right of opting out of out-of-hours care two years ago, under a controversial pay deal, signed by then-Health Secretary John Reid, which awarded them a 22% pay rise in 2006. Brown stated that the NHS was his "immediate priority", yet he had just cut the capital budget of the English NHS from £6.2bn to £4.2bn.[54]

Foreign policy

Gordon Brown touring the slums of Nairobi, Kenya in 2005

Brown remains committed to the Iraq War, but said in a speech in May 2007 that he would "learn the lessons" from the mistakes made in Iraq.

Diplomatic relationship with the US

There has been widepread speculation on the nature of the UK's relationship with the United States under Brown's government. A Washington, D.C. speech by Brown's close aide Douglas Alexander was widely reported as both a policy shift and a message to the US[55]: "In the 21st century, strength should be measured on what we can build together ... we need to demonstrate by our deeds, words and our actions that we are internationalist, not isolationist, multilateralist, not unilateralist, active and not passive, and driven by core values, consistently applied, not special interests."

However Downing Street's spokesman strongly denied the suggestion that Alexander was trying to distance Britain from US foreign policy and show that Britain would not necessarily, in Tony Blair's words, stand "shoulder to shoulder" with George W. Bush over future military interventions[56]: "I thought the interpretation that was put on Douglas Alexander's words was quite extraordinary. To interpret this as saying anything at all about our relationship with the US is nonsense."

Brown personally clarified his position;[57] "We will not allow people to separate us from the United States of America in dealing with the common challenges that we face around the world. I think people have got to remember that the relationship between Britain and America and between a British prime minister and an American president is built on the things that we share, the same enduring values about the importance of liberty, opportunity, the dignity of the individual. I will continue to work, as Tony Blair did, very closely with the American administration."

Married life and family

Previous girlfriends included the journalist Sheena McDonald, Marion Calder and Princess Margarita, the eldest daughter of exiled King Michael of Romania. She has said about their relationship: "It was a very solid and romantic story. I never stopped loving him but one day it didn't seem right any more, it was politics, politics, politics, and I needed nurturing."[58]

Brown married Sarah Macaulay in a private ceremony at his home in North Queensferry, Fife, on 3 August 2000 after a four-year courtship. She is a public relations executive and was, until 2001, Chief Executive of Hobsbawm Macaulay, the consultancy firm she owned with Julia Hobsbawm (daughter of the notable Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm). They met when her company was advising the Labour-supporting New Statesman magazine in 1994 and the relationship blossomed alongside Labour's electoral success. On 28 December 2001, a daughter, Jennifer Jane, was born prematurely and died on 8 January 2002. Gordon Brown commented at the time that their recent experiences had changed him and his wife:

"I don't think we'll be the same again, but it has made us think of what's important. It has made us think that you've got to use your time properly. It's made us more determined. Things that we feel are right we have got to achieve, we have got to do that. Jennifer is an inspiration to us."[59]

Their second child, John, was born on 17 October 2003. Their third child, a son, James Fraser, was born on 17 July 2006; it was reported on 29 November 2006 that he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

Sarah Brown, unlike Cherie Blair, rarely appears at public events with her husband and until recently even missed his Budget speeches. She intends to remain out of the limelight as much as possible but accepts that her life will change when she moves into 10 Downing Street. She has never given a magazine or television interview and even inundated with requests now, she is unlikely to do so.[60]

Of his two brothers, John Brown is Head of Public Relations in the Glasgow City Council. His brother Andrew Brown is currently Head of Media for the French-owned utility company EDF Energy since 2004. He was previously director of media strategy at the world's largest public relations firm Weber Shandwick from June 2003 to 2004. Previously he was editor of the Channel 4 political programme Powerhouse from 1996 to 2003, and worked at the BBC from the late 1970s to early 1980s.[61]

Honours

Brown received honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh in 2003 and Newcastle University in 2007 (DCL). He received an Honorary Doctorate alongside Alan Greenspan from New York University in 2006.

The link between Brown's brother Andrew and one of the main nuclear lobbyists EDF has caused some controversy[62] given the finding that the government did not carry a proper public consultation on the use of nuclear power in its 2006 Energy Review.[63] Attention has also been drawn to the fact[64] that the father-in-law of Brown's closest advisor Ed Balls, Tony Cooper (father of the Labour minister Yvette Cooper) has close links with the nuclear industry. Cooper was described as an "articulate, persuasive and well-informed advocate of nuclear power over the last ten years" by the Nuclear Industry Association on his appointment as Chairman of the British Nuclear Industry Forum in June 2002. He is also a member of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and was appointed to the Energy Advisory Panel by the previous Conservative administration.[65]

Green deception

Gordon Brown has been criticised for deception, after the Treasury admitted he had not kept his promise to switch to an environmentally friendly ministerial car[66]. Brown's aides briefed the media that he was preparing to exchange his existing car for a Toyota Prius, one of the greenest cars on sale in Britain. Brown has instead chosen a 4.2 litre Jaguar XJ V8 which falls into the government's worst emissions band, emitting 3.5 tonnes of CO2 with an estimated usage of 8,000 miles per year[67].

Views on Israel

In a speech given to the Labour Friends of Israel in April 2007, Brown stated:

"Many of you know my interest in Israel and in the Jewish community has been long-standing... My father was the chairman of the Church of Scotland's Israel Committee. Not only as I've described to some of you before did he make visits on almost two occasions a year for 20 years to Israel – but because of that, although Fife, where I grew up, was a long way from Israel with no TV pictures to link us together – I had a very clear view from household slides and projectors about the history of Israel, about the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people, about the enormous suffering and loss during the Holocaust, as well as the extraordinary struggle that he described to me of people to create this magnificent homeland."[68]

See also

Labour politics:

Electoral history:

Current administration:

Brown as Chancellor

Notes

  1. ^ Brown is UK's new prime minister, BBC News, 27 June 2007
  2. ^ "From education to politics: always top of the class". The Dundee Courier. 2007-06-27. Retrieved 2007-07-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ FAMOUS FOLK, Kirkcaldy Civic Society
  4. ^ "Family detective". The Telegraph. 2007-04-28. Retrieved 2007-07-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "What can we expect from a Brown premiership?". ITV News. 2007-06-27. Retrieved 2007-07-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Ben Macintyre (May 19, 2007). "'Cruel' experiment that left its mark on a very precocious boy". The Times. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
  7. ^ "I got a letter from the Chancellor Gordon Brown". Newsround. 2005-04-07. Retrieved 2007-07-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Will he? Won't he?, The Guardian, 26 September 2004
  9. ^ Brown's first taste of power BBC News 15 July 2005
  10. ^ About The Red Paper on Scotland Red Paper on Scotland website.
  11. ^ "Brown's Journey from Reformism to Neoliberalism" John Newsinger International Socialism 115 (summer 2007)
  12. ^ Webster, Philip (1994-05-13). "Friends Blair and Brown face a difficult decision; Death of John Smith". The Times. Retrieved 2007-03-26. As probably the two most powerful figures in the party, they have the agonising task of deciding whether they should at last become rivals and vie for the crown, or whether one should stand aside for the other to become the centre candidate to succeed Mr Smith. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)[dead link]
  13. ^ http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,971644,00.html
  14. ^ "Fight Club"
  15. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6506365.stm
  16. ^ Short, Claire (2003-10-27). "On the edge of a volcano". New Statesman. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "Labour Party Manifesto, General Election 1997". Retrieved 2007-03-30.
  18. ^ The Guardian 2005 election results for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath
  19. ^ Andrew Ellson, Budgeting for stable economic growth
  20. ^ http://society.guardian.co.uk/publicfinances/story/0,,1439789,00.html
  21. ^ http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/tax/article6625.ece
  22. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/issues/4423887.stm
  23. ^ Adam, S. and J. Browne: Template:PDFlink (Google cache HTML), Institute for Fiscal Studies, Briefing note No. 9, March 2006
  24. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,178157,00.html
  25. ^ Spectrum pricings uncertain future, Electonics World, Vol 108. September pp.24-25
  26. ^ Poor lose out in Brown's tax reforms, The Times 3 September 2006.
  27. ^ OECD: General Government Outlays as percentage of GDP (Microsoft Office Excel table)
  28. ^ Brown's raid on pensions costs Britain £100 billion, The Daily Telegraph 16 October 2006
  29. ^ That pensions raid, Evan Davis 2 April 2007.
  30. ^ OECD Economic Outlook No. 78 Annex Tables - Table of Contents
  31. ^ National Statistics Unemployment rate
  32. ^ The five tests The Guardian 29 September 2000
  33. ^ UK 'not yet ready for the euro' BBC, 9 June 2003
  34. ^ HM Treasury review of UK gold reserves sales
  35. ^ Brown's gold sale losses pile up as bullion price surges Scotsman.com website 28 November 2005extrac
  36. ^ "Gordon Brown & IMF Gold Sales". Tax Free Gold. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
  37. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/369846.stm
  38. ^ "Oxford 'reject' wins Harvard scholarship". BBC News. BBC. 2000-05-22. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. ^ "Peers condemn Oxford attack". BBC News. BBC. 2000-06-15. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. ^ "Brown throws weight behind Indian star". January 19, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
  41. ^ "Full text of Gordon Brown's speech". Guardian Unlimited. Guardian News and Media Limited. 2007-02-27. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ Cowell, Alan (2006-09-08). "Blair to Give Up Post as Premier Within One Year". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2007-07-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ "Are you Statistically Prepared to Become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?". BBC - h2g2. BBC. 2005-08-01. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ Sylvester, Rachel (2006-09-09). "Clarke attack on Brown 'the deluded control freak'". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  45. ^ Bright, Martin (2006-09-11). "It must be Gordon, Gordon, Gordon". New Statesman. New Statesman. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  46. ^ Temko, Ned (2007-01-14). "Brown invokes JFK as No 10 beckons". The Observer. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  47. ^ "Make education our national mission" (Press release). Fabian Society. 2007-01-15. Retrieved 2007-07-10. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  48. ^ Naughton, Philippe (2007-03-20). "Brown hit by 'Stalinist' attack on Budget eve". The Times. Times Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 2007-03-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  49. ^ "Blair to stand down on June 27". The Guardian. 2007-05-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  50. ^ "IAN KERSHAW, PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY, SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY". BBC. 2007-05-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  51. ^ "The king is dead". The Economist. 2007-07-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  52. ^ "Gordon's manifesto for change". The Times. 2007-05-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  53. ^ "Poll surge as Brown unveils policy blitz". The Observer. 2007-05-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  54. ^ "Brown cut budget for English hospitals". The Times. 2007-05-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  55. ^ "The subtle shift in British foreign policy". BBC. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  56. ^ "Brown flies out to meet Merkel and will see Bush later". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  57. ^ "Speech not critical of US - Brown". BBC. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  58. ^ Gordon Brown profiled, The Guardian, March 6, 2001
  59. ^ Losing baby has changed us forever, says Brown, The Telegraph 6 Feb 2002 Accessed 10 June 2007
  60. ^ Wife will seek to stay out of the limelight, The Telegraph, 12 May 2007 Accessed 10 June 2007
  61. ^ Andrew Brown to head media team at EDF Energy, EDF Energy, September 13, 2004
  62. ^ The powerful business of promoting a nuclear future, Terry Macalister July 11, 2006, The Guardian
  63. ^ Nuclear review 'was misleading', BBC NEWS, 15 February,2007
  64. ^ Labour and the nuclear lobby, Analysis, Brian Wheeler, BBC NEWS, May 23, 2007
  65. ^ Tony Cooper is new Chairman of BNIF, 28 June 2002, Nuclear Industry Association
  66. ^ "Brown accused of going back on green pledge". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-07-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  67. ^ "Shoppers 'green' Gordon Brown's Jag". New Consumer. Retrieved 2007-07-18. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  68. ^ Jonny Paul: Background: New British PM will likely be friend to Israel, Jerusalem Post, June 27, 2007

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Gordon Brown
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Political offices
Preceded by Chancellor of the Exchequer
1997 – 2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
2007 – present 		Incumbent
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
(constituency created)
 Member of Parliament for Dunfermline East
1983 – 2005 		Succeeded by
(constituency abolished)
Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath
2005 – present 		Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the British Labour Party
2007 – present 		Incumbent
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
The Prime Minister 		Succeeded by
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