Gordon Brown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is currently semi-protected to prevent sock puppets of currently blocked or banned users from editing it. Please discuss changes on the talk page, or request unprotection.

The Rt Hon Dr Gordon Brown
IMFC press conference, Prague Congress Centre
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 May 1997
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Kenneth Clarke
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Born	20 February 1951 (age 56) Glasgow, Scotland
Constituency	Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath
Political party	Labour Party
Spouse	Sarah Macaulay
Religion	Church of Scotland
Signature

James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom and a Labour Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Dunfermline East in Fife from 1983 to 2005 and, following a reorganisation of parliamentary constituencies in Scotland, is now MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Brown has headed HM Treasury since May 1997, making him the longest continuously serving Chancellor since Nicholas Vansittart (1812-1823). He is widely regarded as the second most powerful member of the current British government after the Prime Minister, Tony Blair as opposed to Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. Brown is expected by many to be elected the next leader of the Labour Party replacing Blair and to become Prime Minister, before the Labour Party Conference in September 2007.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life and career before parliament 2 Election to parliament and opposition 3 Chancellor of the Exchequer 3.1 Giving independence to the Bank of England 3.2 Taxation and spending policies 3.3 Other policies and record as Chancellor 3.3.1 Global development and sustainability 3.3.2 Higher education 4 Prospects of succeeding Blair 5 Brown in the media 6 Private life 7 Notes 8 References 8.1 Works 8.2 Biographies 8.3 Others 9 See also 10 External links

Early life and career before parliament

His father, John, was a Church of Scotland minister. Brown attended Kirkcaldy High School, where he performed well and was placed in an academic fast stream. He was accepted by the University of Edinburgh to study history at the age of 16. As a student, he suffered a detached retina, possibly in an accident playing rugby. He was left blind in his left eye, despite treatment including several operations and lying in a darkened room for weeks at a time. A later operation for a detached retina in his right eye saved him from total blindness.^[2]

Brown graduated from Edinburgh with First Class Honours, and stayed on to complete his Doctorate, 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]".

While a student, Brown was elected Rector^[3] of Edinburgh University and Chairman of the University Court; he also edited The Red Paper on Scotland.^[4]

Brown lectured at Edinburgh and then at Glasgow College of Technology before working as a journalist at Scottish Television. 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

He was elected to Parliament as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983, becoming 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 John Smith in May 1994, Brown was one of those tipped as a potential party leader.^[5] It has long been rumoured that a deal was struck between Blair and Brown at the Granita restaurant in Islington, in which Blair promised to give Brown control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing against him in the leadership election^{[citation needed]}. 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^{[citation needed]}.

As Shadow Chancellor, Brown worked hard 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.^{[citation needed]}

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Giving independence to the Bank of England

On taking office as Chancellor, Brown gave the Bank of England operational independence in monetary policy, and thus responsibility for setting interest rates. The Conservatives opposed this until 1999, as a prelude to the abolishment of sterling and entrance into the Euro zone, whilst Bank of England independence had been a key plank of Liberal Democrat economic policy since the 1992 general election.

Taxation and spending policies

Brown adhered to Labour's 1997 election pledge of not increasing the basic or higher rates of income tax. He reduced the starting rate from 20% (pre-1997) to 10% (1999) before abolishing the starting rate in 2007, and reduced the basic rate from 23% (pre-1997) to 22% (2000) and then 20% (2007).^[6]

Brown has increased the tax thresholds in line with inflation, rather than earnings, which rise more quickly during periods of economic growth. This results in fiscal drag in which more taxpayers are drawn into the upper rates (e.g. in 2000-01 there were 2,880,000 higher-rate taxpayers, whereas in 2005-06 there were 3,160,000).^[7]

Corporation tax has fallen under Brown, from a main rate of 33% (pre-1997) to 30% (1999) and then 28% (2007), and from 24% to 19% for small businesses (although the lower rate is set to rise to 22% by 2010).^[8]

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; this is a tax on income separate from personal income tax. Brown has changed tax policy in other ways, such as the working tax credits. This is one of several ideas borrowed from the US Clinton administration whereby welfare payments are accounted for as negative taxation. The separate means-testing process for tax credits has been criticised by some as bureaucratic, and in 2003-04 and 2004-05 problems in the system led to overpayments of £2.2bn and £1.8bn respectively^[9] However, economic theory suggests that tax credits can strengthen work incentives for those at the margin between employment and unemployment, and the IFS has estimated that the reforms brought at least 50,000 single mothers into part-time work.^[10]

In practice Brown's policies have resulted in the poorest fifth of households comparatively paying more tax and receiving a lower share of benefits since Labour's election victory in 1997. The Centre for Policy Studies found that the poorest fifth of households accounted for 6.9% of all taxes paid in 2004-5, up from 6.8% in 1996-7. Meanwhile, their share of state benefit payouts dropped from 28.1% to 27.1% over the same period.^[11]

According to the OECD UK taxation has increased from a 39.3% share of GDP in 1997 to 42.4% in 2006, going to a higher level than Germany.^[12] This increase has mainly been attributed to active government policy, and not simply to the growing economy. To have brought this about with only one explicit tax rise has led to accusations of Brown imposing stealth taxes. A commonly reported example resulted in 1997 from a technical change in the way that corporation tax is collected, the indirect effect of which was for the returns on equity investments held within pensions to be taxed, thus lowering pension returns and allegedly contributing to the demise of some pension funds.^[13]

Other policies and record as Chancellor

Brown has pointed to two main accomplishments: growth and employment. An OECD report^[14] shows UK economic growth has averaged 2.7% between 1997 and 2006, higher than the Eurozone's 2.1% though lower than any other English-speaking country. UK unemployment is 5.5%,^[15] 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^[16] to ascertain whether the economic case had been made. In June 2003 the Treasury indicated the tests had not been met.^[17]

Between 1999 and 2002 Brown sold 60% of the UK's gold reserves at $275 an ounce.^[18] It was later attacked as a "disastrous foray into international asset management"^[19] as he had sold at close to a 20-year low. Prices went on to reach $700 an ounce in May 2006 - he could have raised £4bn for the public had he waited.^[20] He pressured the IMF to do the same [7], but it resisted.

Under Brown the windfall 'telecoms' radio spectrum 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 the high prices from the telecom operators. Some commentators have said this caused a depression in the supporting industries and the loss of 30,000 jobs that year in the European IT sector. This, coupled with the German radio spectrum auctions, has been identified by some as the primary cause of the 2001 depression in the European IT industry.^{[citation needed]}

Brown has been a supporter of Third World debt reduction for some time.^{[citation needed]}

Brown's lengthy period as Chancellor of the Exchequer has set several records. He is the longest-serving Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer (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, 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 the period from 1852 to 1882 (although not continuously). Brown's Chancellorship has seen the longest period of sustained economic growth in UK history, although some economists point out that this growth period started under the preceding Conservative government in 1993 after the UK's exit from the Exchange Rate Mechanism.^{[citation needed]}

Global development and sustainability

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

"... far from being at odds with each other, our economic objectives and our environmental objectives now increasingly reinforce each other. ... Environmental sustainability is not an option - it is a necessity. For economies to flourish, for global poverty to be banished, for the well-being of the world's people to be enhanced - not just in this generation but in succeeding generations - we have a compelling and ever more urgent duty of stewardship to take care of the natural environment and resources on which our economic activity and social fabric depends. ... A new paradigm that sees economic growth, social justice and environmental care advancing together can become the common sense of our age."^[21]

Higher education

In 2000, Brown started a major political row about higher education (referred to as the Laura Spence Affair) when he accused Oxford University of elitism in their admissions procedures [8].

He described their decision not to offer a place to state school pupil Laura Spence as "absolutely outrageous" and implied that their decision was based on her background rather than her academic potential. This started a major and hotly argued row in the media in which Oxford strongly denied these accusations.

With his comments, Brown can arguably be credited with raising widening participation to Higher Education higher up the political agenda. However, at the same time, many of his opponents said that Brown's comments were ill founded, including Lord Jenkins (then Chancellor of Oxford University) who said that "nearly every fact he used was false," and that said Brown's speech about Laura had been a "little Blitzkrieg in being an act of sudden unprovoked aggression" [9].

Prospects of succeeding Blair

This section documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

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 September 7, 2006 that he would step down within a year.^[22] Brown has been the clear favourite to succeed Blair for several years and remains so with experts and the bookmakers; he is one of the few candidates spoken of seriously in Westminster. Recent appearances and news coverage have been 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. After the UK Local Government elections in May 2006, where Labour lost two-fifths of the councils they previously controlled, Brown has been accused of having used the failure of the Labour Party to advance his own cause for the leadership.

Were Brown to become Prime Minister, he would be the first from a Scottish constituency since the Conservative Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1964. He would also be one of the few university-educated Prime Ministers not to have attended Oxford or Cambridge, along with the Earl of Bute (Leiden), Lord Russell (Edinburgh), Ramsay MacDonald (London) and Neville Chamberlain (Birmingham) [10]; James Callaghan and John Major were not university-educated.

On the 9 September 2006 Charles Clarke in an interview in The Daily Telegraph said the Chancellor has "psychological" issues that he must confront and accused him of being a "control freak" and "totally uncollegiate". Brown was also "deluded", he said, to think that Blair can and should anoint him as his successor now.^[23]

The Labour defeat in the Dunfermline and West Fife 2006 by-election, after a campaign largely led by Brown in a constituency in which he lives, has cast doubt on his ability to win elections on his own without Blair wooing middle-class voters.

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^[24] to close down speculation of a possible challenge. Despite his disavowals, attempts to draft David Miliband to run have continued, with the launch of a new website obstensibly to debate policy, from former Ministers Alan Milburn and Charles Clarke, widely viewed as an attempt to test the water. However, this widely covered initiative was also a sign of weakness in that 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 previous Environmental Secretary Michael Meacher declared their willingness to contest the election, though both would need to gain 44 nominations from Labour MPs required to make the ballot. Either would be rank outsiders in a contest, and some on the left fear that the two candidacies may prevent either standing.

From January 2007, Brown, Blair and the machinery of government have increasingly begun to treat Brown as premier-in-waiting, with a wider range of visits, foreign trips and speeches beyond Brown's Chancellor role, the media reporting that 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).^[25]. 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 [11] at a Fabian Society conference on 'The Next Decade' in January 2007. In this way, Brown has used the final months of the Blair premiership to set out the themes of a Brown premiership while remaining constrained from setting out publicly the policy detail of his agenda in these areas.

As Gordon Brown is Chancellor of the Exchequer, he could become prime minister and retain this office, and thus remain in No 11 Downing street. Whilst the majority of Prime Ministers have derived their cabinet position from being First Lord of the Treasury, being Chancellor of the Exchequer has also been used many times, last by Balfour in 1905 (Lord Privy Seal and Foreign Minister have also been used). Whilst this may be unlikely, it would enable him to retain direct control over fiscal policy, as well as to be slightly devious in the quotes issued to the media in advance of Blair stepping aside, should he do so. It is however, unlikely, as in his March 2007 budget speech he specifically referred to Gladstone having delivered 12 budgets by fulfilling both offices at once, "something no one should ever contemplate doing again", he remarked to laughter in the Commons.

Brown's character has recently been 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".^[26] This was especially picked up on by the British media as the comments by Turnbull were made on the eve of Brown's (expected to be last) budget report.

As of 21st March 2007, it is now expected that Gordon Brown is likely to be declared leader of the Labour party on 25th June 2007 and see the Queen to become the prime minister the following day.^[27], assuming that Brown remains unchallenged for the leadership of the Labour party.

Brown in the media

Private Eye's "Born to be Queenie" portrays a satirical sexual relationship between Blair and Brown. However, Brown denied being homosexual when he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs:

Gordon Brown was shadow chancellor when the presenter Sue Lawley asked: "People want to know whether you're gay or whether there's some flaw in your personality that you haven't made a relationship."^[28]

Brown was played by David Morrissey in the Stephen Frears directed TV movie The Deal. In October 2006 Brown presented the lifetime achievement award to George Martin at the UK Music Hall of Fame awards.

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."[12]

Brown further explained his ideas about this on 27th Feb 2007, in a speech on Britishness at the Commonwealth Club in London, England, where he said that "recent debates like that over the Big Brother show" exemplify the idea that Britain wants to be "defined by being a tolerant, fair and decent country." [13]

Private life

Brown married Sarah Macaulay 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. On 28 December 2001, a daughter, Jennifer Jane, was born prematurely and died on 8 January 2002. Their second child, a son, 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.^[29]

His previous girlfriends included Sheena Macdonald, Marion Calder and Princess Margarita, the eldest daughter of exiled King Michael of Romania. She said: "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."^[30]

Brown has been a supporter of Raith Rovers Football Club since childhood and is a member of the consortium which led a community buy-out of the club in December 2005.

Brown has two brothers: John Brown, Head of Public Relations in the Glasgow City Council and Andrew Brown, a PR consultant for the French-owned utility company EDF Energy.

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

Notes

1. Gordon Brown as Rector at Edinburgh University
2. BBC News
3. Boston Globe - Brown's views on global warming
4. 2005 election results page for Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath
5. Labour lose in Brown's home constituency?

References

1. ^ Daily Mail
2. ^ Will he? Won't he?, The Guardian, 26 September 2004
3. ^ Brown's first taste of power BBC News 15 July 2005
4. ^ About The Red Paper on Scotland Red Paper on Scotland website.
5. ^ Webster, Philip. "Friends Blair and Brown face a difficult decision; Death of John Smith", The Times, The Times, 1994-05-13. Retrieved on 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.”
6. ^ Figures from A survey of the UK tax system Adam, S. and J. Browne, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Briefing Note No. 9, March 2006
7. ^ Ibid.
8. ^ Ibid.
9. ^ More get tax credit overpayments BBC News, 31 May 2006
10. ^ The impact of tax and benefit changes between April 2000 and April 2003 on parents' labour supply Blundell, R., M. Brewer and A. Shepherd, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Briefing Note No. 52, 2004
11. ^ Poor lose out in Brown's tax reforms, The Times 3 September 2006.
12. ^ General Government Outlays as percentage of GDP OECD
13. ^ Brown's raid on pensions costs Britain £100 billion, The Daily Telegraph 16 October 2006.
14. ^ OECD Economic Outlook No. 78 Annex Tables - Table of Contents OECD
15. ^ National Statistics Unemploment rate
16. ^ The five tests The Guardian 29 September 2000
17. ^ UK 'not yet ready for the euro' BBC, 9 June 2003
18. ^ HM Treasury review of UK gold reserves sales
19. ^ Brown's gold sale losses pile up as bullion price surges Scotsman.com website 28 November 2005
20. ^ Fury over the great gold sale, opinion piece by Alex Brummer, Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee website.
21. ^ Speech by Gordon Brown, New York, 20 April 2006
22. ^ The New York Times, September 7, 2006[1]
23. ^ The Daily Telegraph, 9 September, 2006[2]
24. ^ [3]
25. ^ The Observer, 14 January 2007 [4]
26. ^ The Times, 20 March 2007 "Brown hit by 'Stalinist' attack on Budget eve" [5]
27. ^ The Guardian, 21 March 2007 "Labour's NEC lays down the rules for leadership succession" [6]
28. ^ Media Guardian, Lawley to cast away from Desert Island Discs, April 13, 2006 Accessed 27 October 2006
29. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2478775,00.html
30. ^ "Gordon Brown profiled", The Guardian, March 6, 2001

Works

• Brown, Gordon (2006); Speeches 1997-2006, edited by Wilf Stevenson. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747588376
• Brown, Gordon (ed.); Wright, Tony (ed.) (1995). Values, Visions and Voices: An Anthology of Socialism. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-85158-731-4.
• Brown, Gordon (1989). Where There's Greed: Margaret Thatcher and the Betrayal of Britain's Future. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-85158-228-2.
• Brown, Gordon (ed.); Cook, Robin (ed.) (1987). Scotland: The Real Divide - Poverty and Deprivation in Scotland. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 0-906391-18-0.
• Brown, Gordon (1986). Maxton: A Biography. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-85158-042-5.

Biographies

• Bower, Tom (2003). Gordon Brown. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-717540-X.
• Brivati, Brian (2002). 'Gordon Brown' in Labour Forces, Jefferys, Kevin (ed). IB Taurus Publishing. ISBN 141751633X
• Keegan, William (2003). The Prudence of Mr Gordon Brown. John Wiley. ISBN 0-470-84697-6.
• Maguire, Kevin (2001). 'Gordon Brown' in Dictionary of Labour Biography, Rosen, Greg (ed). Politicos Publishing. ISBN 1902301188
• Naughtie, James (2001). The Rivals: The Intimate Story of a Political Marriage. Fourth Estate. ISBN 1-84115-473-3.
• Peston, Robert (2005). Brown's Britain: How Gordon Runs the Show. Short Books. ISBN 1-904095-67-4.
• Routledge, Paul (1998). Gordon Brown: The Biography. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81954-6.

Others

• Pym, Hugh & Kochan, Nick (1998), Gordon Brown the First Year in Power, Bloomsbury. ISBN-10: 0747537011
• Rawnsley, Andrew (2001). Servants of the people: The inside story of New Labour. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-027850-8.
• Rosen, Greg (2005). Old Labour to New. Politicos Publishing. ISBN 1842750453
• Routledge, Paul (2003). Bumper Book of British Lefties. Politicos Publishing. ISBN 184275064X

See also

• Blair-Brown deal
• Cabinet of the United Kingdom
• 54th UK general election
• UK general election, 2005
• UK general election, 2001
• UK general election, 1997
• UK general election, 1992
• UK general election, 1987
• UK general election, 1983

External links

• HM Treasury - Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• 10 Downing Street - Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Gordon Brown MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Gordon Brown
• BBC News - Tour diary: Gordon Brown in Africa January 2005 trip about his 'Marshall plan for Africa'
• Open Directory Project - Gordon Brown directory category
• Budget Speech - A review of the man's budget speeches.
• Gordon Clown - Satirical blog covering Gordon Brown's activities
• Observer: How Gordon Brown become the most powerful Chancellor in history
• Gordon Brown 'The Socialist Challenge' (extracts from his introduction to 'The Red Paper on Scotland' (1975))

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Dunfermline East 1983–2005	Succeeded by (constituency abolished)
Preceded by (constituency created)	Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath 2005 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Kenneth Clarke	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1997 – present	Incumbent