Gordon Brown

This article is about the British Chancellor of the Exchequer. For the rugby union player of the same name, see Gordon Brown (rugby player)

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The Rt Hon. Gordon Brown

The Right Honourable James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a Scottish Labour Party politician. He was MP for Dunfermline East from 1983 - 2005, then Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2005 following a major revision in the composition of parliamentary constituencies in Scotland. Brown has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom since May 1997 (the longest continuously serving Chancellor since Nicholas Vansittart 1812-1823) and is widely tipped to become Prime Minister after the retirement of Tony Blair.

Early and private life

Brown was born in Glasgow and educated at Kirkcaldy High School. His father, John, was a Church of Scotland minister. While at school he suffered detached retinas in a rugby accident and his left eye is now glass. Brown read History at Edinburgh University, graduating with First Class Honours. Brown would stay at Edinburgh to complete his Doctorate on radical Labour Party politician, James Maxton.

Even before entering Parliament, Brown had achieved some renown: he was elected Rector of Edinburgh University and Chairman of the University Court while still a student, and edited "The Red Paper on Scotland". Brown lectured at that university and then at Glasgow College of Technology before working as a journalist at Scottish Television. In the 1979 general election, Brown fought the Edinburgh South constituency, but lost to the Conservative candidate, Michael Ancram. In 1986, he published a biography of the Independent Labour Party politician James Maxton.

Brown married Sarah Macaulay at his home in North Queensferry, Fife, on 3 August 2000 after a four-year courtship. Mrs Brown is a public relations executive and was, until 2001, Chief Executive of Hobsbawm Macaulay, the consultancy firm she owned with Julia Hobsbawm. On 28 December 2001, a daughter, Jennifer Jane, was born prematurely; she died on 8 January 2002. Their second child, a son, John, was born on 17 October 2003. In January 2006 it was announced that they were expecting a third child in July.

Brown is a Raith Rovers supporter, a team he has supported since boyhood. He is currently leading a consortium of celebrity investors to save his favourite football club from going under and has also persuaded Coldplay to stage a benefit concert at their Stark's Park ground for 2006.

Early Parliamentary career

He was elected to Parliament as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983, becoming opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry in 1985, then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, before becoming Shadow Chancellor in 1992.

After the sudden death of John Smith, Brown was tipped as a potential party leader, but he stepped aside and allowed Tony Blair to become leader. It has long been rumoured that a deal was struck between the two men at the Granita restaurant in Islington, that Blair promised to give Brown complete control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing against him in the election, and that he would retire at some future date, allowing Brown to become Prime Minister. Whether this is true or not, the relationship between Blair and Brown has been central to the fortunes of "New Labour", and they have by and large remained united in public despite reported rifts.

As Shadow Chancellor, Brown worked hard to establish an image of fiscal competence, and to reassure business and the middle class that Labour could be trusted to run the economy without fuelling inflation. "Prudence" became Brown's catchphrase, and he cultivated a dour and even miserly air, though he is apparently known to friends and constituents as a good-humoured and romantic man. He also committed Labour to following the Conservatives' spending plans for the first two years after taking power.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

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Gordon Brown speaking at the Urban Summit in 2002

On taking office as Chancellor, Brown sprung a surprise by giving the Bank of England operational independence in the conduct of monetary policy, and thus responsibility for setting interest rates. On fiscal matters, he is regarded as having an unusually strong influence over the details of the government's spending plans. While he has adhered to Labour's election pledge to make no increases to the standard or higher rates of income tax, the conjunction of his decisions to align the national insurance threshold with the income tax threshold and then increase the national insurance rate without regard to the upper earnings limit by one percentage point, has had substantially the same effect except for investment income and pensions in payment. This action, together with the increase in the tax share of national income on a cyclically adjusted basis, accounts for the recurrent accusations that Brown has faced of imposing "stealth taxes". In 1998 Brown made the decision to sell 60% of the UK's gold reserves, reducing them from 715 tons to 300 tons, a decision which proved in retrospect to be poor, as the price was close to a 20-year low, and in subsequent years increased substantially, meaning the Chanceller could have realised an extra £2 billion for the sale [1]. This was completed in 2001 [2].

He is widely viewed as less enthusiastically pro-euro than most in the Blair government, and apparent rifts have occurred between him and more europhile members of Cabinet (such as Peter Hain and Jack Straw).

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 seven 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). As he has commented upon on several occasions, his Chancellorship has overseen the longest period of sustained economic growth in the UK.

In May 2004, opinion polling suggested that Labour would only win a parliamentary majority at the next general election if Gordon Brown were leader instead of Tony Blair¹. In the same month John Prescott and Brown attended a ceremony in Scotland to commemorate John Smith and were photographed sitting together in a car. It is speculated that Blair and Prescott agreed some form of pact and Prescott claimed that tectonic "plates" are "shifting", but in October 2004 Tony Blair announced his intention to serve out a full third term. The resignation of David Blunkett in December 2004 (and again, in November 2005) damaged one of Brown's main challengers in a prospective leadership contest and so revived speculation over a leadership succession. Brown has for some time promoted the cause of acting to reduce Third World debt and following the Asian Tsunami Disaster this has positioned Brown well inside the curve of popular opinion in the UK. Political controversy over the relationship between Brown and Blair in advance of the prospective UK general election, 2005 continued into January 2005.

The two temporarily appeared to have put their differences behind thign trail together. The Labour party even produced an election broadcast, showing the two debating policy and making jokes about their 'troubled' relationship. Continued reports of disagreements still appear in the British media, though.

On 11 April 2005 Brown was listed in Time Magazine's annual list of 100 Most Influential People in the World. Interestingly, his sometime friend and sometime rival, Tony Blair, was not included, despite holding a more senior position. This could be attributed to the widespread expectation that Brown has no serious rivals as the next Prime Minister. He is very pro-American and holidays there constantly. Particularly impressed with American patriotism he has tried to make Britain more patriotic, recently saying that Remembrance Day should become 'British Day' to take the flag back from the BNP and bring about a more patriotic atmosphere in Britain.

Notes

1. BBC News
2. Boston Globe - Brown's views on global warming

[3] 2005 election results page for Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath

Bibliography

Works

• Brown, Gordon (1989). Where There's Greed: Margaret Thatcher and the Betrayal of Britain's Future. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1851582282.
• Brown, Gordon (ed.); Cook, Robin (ed.) (1987). Scotland: The Real Divide - Poverty and Deprivation in Scotland. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 0906391180.
• Brown, Gordon (1986). Maxton: A Biography. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1851580425.

Biographies

• Peston, Robert (2005). Brown's Britain: How Gordon Runs the Show. Short Books. ISBN 1904095674.
• Bower, Tom (2003). Gordon Brown. HarperCollins. ISBN 000717540X.
• Keegan, William (2003). The Prudence of Mr Gordon Brown. John Wiley. ISBN 0470846976.
• Naughtie, James (2001). The Rivals: The Intimate Story of a Political Marriage. Fourth Estate. ISBN 1841154733.
• Routledge, Paul (1998). Gordon Brown: The Biography. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684819546.

Others

• Rawnsley, Andrew (2001). Servants of the people: The inside story of New Labour. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140278508.

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

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