Gordon Brown

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Gordon Brown at the 2008 World Economic Forum

James Gordon Brown (born February 20, 1951 in Glasgow , Scotland ) is a British politician and was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Chairman of the Labor Party from June 2007 to May 2010 . He is currently the United Nations Special Envoy for Education.

Since 1983 he was a member of the British House of Commons for the constituency of Dunfermline East , and since a reorganization of the Scottish constituencies in 2005 he represented the constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath in the county of Fife until 2015 . Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony Blair's government from May 1997 to June 2007 , making it the longest-serving Chancellor of the Exchequer since Nicholas Vansittart (1812-1823).

Life

Studies and academic career

University of Edinburgh courtyard

Gordon Brown, whose father John Ebenezer Brown was pastor of the (Reformed) Church of Scotland , attended Kirkcaldy High School. At the age of 16, Brown was admitted to the University of Edinburgh , the youngest freshman at that university since World War II. During a rugby game at the beginning of his student days, he was kicked in the head, which resulted in a detached retina . Despite several operations, he went blind in his left eye and had to lie in a darkened room for several months to save his second eye.

He graduated with a Masters of Arts in history in 1972 and stayed at the university to do a PhD. That same year, Gordon Brown became the youngest rector in the history of the University of Edinburgh. In 1982 he received his doctorate . Brown's doctoral thesis dealt with the history of the Scottish Labor Party from 1918 to 1929. Gordon Brown achieved reputation as rector of the University of Edinburgh, as chairman of the University Court (while still a student) and as editor of "The Red Paper on Scotland" reputation.

He taught at Glasgow Caledonian University before moving to Scottish Television (part of the ITV network) as a journalist . In 1986 he published a biography about the Labor politician James Maxton .

Political career

In the general election in 1979 was a candidate for the constituency Brown Edinburgh South , but lost to Michael Ancram from the Conservative Party . On the second attempt in the general election in 1983 , Brown was as a member of Dunfermline East in the House of Commons voted. During this time he shared an office with the future Prime Minister Tony Blair . Both became close friends during this time. In 1985 he became opposition spokesman for trade and industry. From 1987 he was a member of the shadow cabinet , first as shadow chief secretary of the treasury , then from 1989 as shadow minister for trade and industry and from 1992 as shadow treasure chancellor.

After the sudden death of Labor leader John Smith in May 1994, Brown was traded as a potential successor, but renounced a candidacy in favor of Tony Blair. There are rumors that during a meal in an Italian restaurant in Islington , Blair promised to give Brown control of economic policy and, after a period of time, to step down so that Brown could become Prime Minister himself. This agreement, also known as the “Granita Deal”, was later disputed by Tony Blair. The collaboration between Blair and Brown was central to the development of New Labor . Both stuck together despite publicly reported tensions.

As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Brown worked to develop his knowledge of financial matters. He wanted to prove to the economy and the middle class the competence of Labor in economic questions and in the fight against inflation. Prudence ("prudence") became Brown's catchphrase and he was grumpy and even stingy, although friends describe him as a humorous and romantic man. He convinced the Labor Party to adopt the Conservatives' spending plan for two years after coming to power.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

After Brown took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer in May 1997 , he granted the Bank of England unrestricted freedom in monetary policy and thus responsibility for setting interest rates . The Conservatives were against the measure as they saw it as a first step towards the abolition of the pound sterling and entry into the European Economic and Monetary Union . The Liberal Democrats, however, saw one of their main concerns fulfilled. Indeed, Brown is seen as less pro- euro than most members of the Blair government, and disagreements have emerged between him and euro-advocates in the government such as: B. Peter Hain and Jack Straw clearly.

Gordon Brown with Brazil's President Lula da Silva at the 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos

Under Brown, income taxes and corporate taxes fell noticeably. As soon as the Conservatives' spending plan ran out, Brown pushed through major health and education spending in 2000. According to the OECD, the average annual economic growth from 1997 to 2006 was 2.7 percent, around 0.6 percent higher than in the euro zone. The unemployment rate fell from 7 to 5.5 percent.

On June 15, 2004 Brown became the longest uninterrupted chancellor of the Exchequer since Nicholas Vansittart (1812-23). In May 2004, polls showed that Labor would only regain a majority in parliament if Gordon Brown led it instead of Tony Blair. The then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced that there would be major changes, but in October 2004 Tony Blair announced that he would run for a third term.

Prime Minister and party leader

Gordon Brown (2nd from right) and his wife Sarah (left) with George W. Bush and his wife Laura in June 2008

Brown received the support of 313 of his party's 353 MPs on May 17, 2007. The Labor Executive Committee then officially named him Blair's successor. First, Tony Blair handed over the office of party leader to Brown on June 24 at a special party conference in Manchester . Since June 27, 2007, Brown ran the business as Prime Minister. Labor initiated the Not Flash, Just Gordon campaign at the beginning of his term in office , which expressed a partial departure from Blair's New Labor . Brown rarely used the catchphrase New Labor in public appearances. Brown also published his manifesto for change , in which he promised to continue to view the National Health Service as his top priority, to continue cracking down on corruption and to rebalance the relationship between central power and local government. Afterwards there was speculation about an early election ; Brown announced in October that there would be no new elections. Labor soon fell behind the Tories around David Cameron in the polls , and important by-elections were lost. In September 2007 the financial company Northern Rock got into trouble, leading to the first run on a British bank in living memory. Overall, Brown's tenure was overshadowed by the 2007 financial crisis. Having earned a reputation for high economic expertise as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Brown became more associated with the financial crisis than any other government leader. Brown put together a £ 500 billion bank bailout in response. However, the UK's economy has been slow to recover and Labor polls have shown no upward trend. The British general election in 2010 saw the first direct TV duel between the party leaders based on the American model. After the lost elections for Labor and the subsequent failure of negotiations with the Liberal Democratic Party , Brown resigned from his posts as Prime Minister and Chairman of the Labor Party on May 11, 2010 and has since been a member of the lower house as a simple MP.

Assessment of Brown's tenure as Prime Minister

Very different judgments have been made about Brown as Prime Minister. His followers portrayed an inspiring and brilliant leader who defended the interests of the United Kingdom and helped stabilize the global economy in the banking and financial crisis from 2007 onwards. Critics described him as inaccessible, suspicious, and authoritarian. Internal party conflicts, especially with Tony Blair, and intrigues reinforced this impression. Political observers like Robert Harris and Christopher Hitchens compared Brown's political style to that of Richard Nixon . Brown is sometimes described as a so-called "tail-end" Prime Minister, whose term of office is seen as little more than an epilogue to Blair's decade as Prime Minister.

After the 2010 general election

Brown spent the next few years as a backbencher. On December 1, 2014, he announced his retirement from politics and declared that he did not want to run again in the 2015 general election. Kenny Selbie ran for the Labor Party in his constituency, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath . However, he could not prevail against the SNP candidate Roger Mullin .

In addition to serving as the United Nations Special Envoy on Global Education , Gordon Brown is chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Strategic Infrastructure Initiative and Distinguished Global Leader in Residence at New York University .

Private life

Sarah and Gordon Brown, 2009

Gordon Brown was born on August 3, 2000 with Sarah. Macaulay married. Unlike Cherie Blair , Sarah Brown rarely appeared in public. She is a PR manager by profession and was co-managing director of the consulting firm Hobsbawm Macaulay until 2001 , together with Julia Hobsbawm, the daughter of the historian and social scientist Eric Hobsbawm . On December 28, 2001, Sarah Brown gave birth to a premature daughter who died on January 8, 2002. The second child, a son, was born on October 17, 2003. Another son was born on July 17, 2006. It has been known since the end of 2006 that the child suffers from cystic fibrosis .

Brown himself lost one eye in a rugby accident as a teenager, and the eyesight of his remaining eye is very weak. As a letter to the mother of a slain British soldier revealed, his handwriting skills suffer significantly. Brown has a driver's license, but hasn't been behind the wheel of a car since he was 21.

Brown has two brothers. John Brown heads the Department of Public Relations of the City Council of Glasgow ; Andrew Brown heads the PR department at EDF Energy , the UK subsidiary of Électricité de France .

literature

Own writings

signature
  • My Scotland, Our Britain. A future worth sharing . Simon & Schuster, 2014. ISBN 978-1-47113-748-8 .
  • What follows: How we create new growth worldwide . Campus Verlag, 2011. ISBN 978-3-593-39453-4 .
  • Speeches 1997-2006 . Modifications made by Wilf Stevenson. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0-74758-837-6 .
  • with Tony Wright: Values, Visions and Voices - An Anthology of Socialism . Mainstream Publishing, 1995. ISBN 1-85158-731-4 .
  • Where There's Greed - Margaret Thatcher and the Betrayal of Britain's Future . Mainstream Publishing, 1989. ISBN 1-85158-228-2 .
  • with Robin Cook: Scotland - The Real Divide, Poverty and Deprivation in Scotland . Mainstream Publishing, 1987. ISBN 0-906391-18-0 .
  • Maxton - A Biography . Mainstream Publishing, 1986. ISBN 1-85158-042-5 .

Biographies

  • Tom Bower: Gordon Brown . HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-00-717540-X .
  • Brian Brivati: Chapter on Gordon Brown in Labor Forces . IB Taurus Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-41751-633-X .
  • William Keegan: The Prudence of Mr Gordon Brown . John Wiley, 2003. ISBN 0-470-84697-6 .
  • Kevin Maguire: Chapter on Gordon Brown in Dictionary of Labor Biography . Politicos Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-90230-118-8 .
  • James Naughtie: The Rivals - The Intimate Story of a Political Marriage . Fourth Estate, 2001. ISBN 1-84115-473-3 .
  • Robert Peston: Brown's Britain - How Gordon Runs the Show . Short Books, 2005. ISBN 1-904095-67-4 .
  • Paul Routledge: Gordon Brown - The Biography . Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0-684-81954-6 .
  • Steve Richards: Whatever it takes. The real story of Gordon Brown and New Labor. HarperCollins, 2010 ISBN 978-0-00-732032-5

Others

  • Hugh Pym, Nick Kochan: Gordon Brown - The First Year in Power . Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998. ISBN 0-74753-701-1 .
  • Andrew Rawnsley: Servants of the people - The inside story of New Labor . Penguin Books, 2001. ISBN 0-14-027850-8 .
  • Greg Rosen: Old Labor to New . Politicos Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-84275-045-3 .
  • Paul Routledge: Bumper Book of British Lefties . Politicos Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-84275-064-X .
  • Anthony Seldon: Brown at 10 . Biteback, 2010. ISBN 978-1-84954-069-8 .

Web links

Commons : Gordon Brown  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Biography in the Encyclopædia Britannica (English), as of June 16, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c Official short biography on gov.uk (English)
  3. ↑ John Campbell: Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown. Vintage Books, London 2009, p. 348.
  4. ↑ John Campbell: Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown. Vintage Books, London 2009, p. 349.
  5. ↑ John Campbell: Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown. Vintage Books, London 2009, p. 359 ff.
  6. ↑ John Campbell: Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown. Vintage Books, London 2009, p. 400.
  7. ^ Gordon Brown's resignation speech in full. The Guardian , May 11, 2010.
  8. ↑ James Landale: Gordon Brown: Giant of his age or failed prime minister? BBC News, December 1, 2014, accessed December 1, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Christopher Hitchens: No, Prime Minister! Vanity Fair
  10. ↑ John Campbell: Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown. Vintage Books, London 2009, p. 407.
  11. ↑ Gordon Brown announces he will stand down as MP. BBC News, December 1, 2014, accessed December 1, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Results of the general election 2015
  13. ^ Gordon Brown at educationenvoy.org, accessed June 16, 2016
  14. ↑ Gordon Brown on Gordon and Sarah Brown's website, accessed June 16, 2016
  15. ^ Gordon and Sarah wed at home news.bbc.co.uk, August 3, 2000
  16. ↑ Wüterich built close to the water . In: stern.de . February 15, 2010 ( stern.de [accessed October 21, 2018]).
  17. ↑ Late horror. In: sueddeutsche.de. July 12, 2011, accessed March 9, 2018 .
  18. ^ Rheinische Post , Guardian , The Telegraph
  19. ↑ sueddeutsche.de: Embarrassing letter from the premier - Gordon's scrawl ( Memento from April 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on May 12, 2010
  20. ↑ When were prime ministers banned from driving? bbc.com, February 19, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Brown, Gordon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brown, James Gordon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, Member of the House of Commons and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow , Scotland , United Kingdom