Gordon Brown
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Gordon Brown was the leader of the British Labour Party from 2007 to 2010, and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during that time. His transfer of power from Tony Blair in 2007 was essentially a bloodless coup, as he chickened out of calling an election that year, or the next year. Or the year after that. The year after that (2010) he legally had to. Which sucked for the Labour Party, because they went down.
In an effort to woo the lovely Nick Clegg he fell on his sword following the UK elections in the spring of 2010, but fell ever so slowly, as he said he wasn't actually going to leave until the autumn.
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[edit] Personal life
Gordon Brown, or "a one-eyed Scottish idiot" as he's accurately summed up by Jeremy Clarkson,[1][2] was born in 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland. He gained a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and was elected to Parliament in 1983 as an MP for Dunfermline East. Despite Brown's dour public image, he's said to be quite witty in his private life and is a personal friend of left-wing activist J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. Rowling has described Brown as "a good friend and listener, kind, warm and funny."
[edit] Politics and such
Brown served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Tony Blair from 1997 to 2007, at which point Blair left office and Brown was crowned leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. Brown has often been criticised for a lack of charisma and social skills, unlike his predecessor, Tony Blair, who was a renowned spin-doctor and smooth-talker. Brown's poor social skills may be due to his eyesight problems. He is blind in one eye as a result of an injury sustained playing rugby as a boy and has poor eyesight in the other. He has also been speculated to have Asperger's syndrome.
Brown made many positive contributions as Chancellor of the Exchequer but even this phase was not without its stains. He managed to sell off Britain's gold reserves, among the most valuable in the world, at rock bottom prices and get practically nothing in return, increasing the country's slide towards bankruptcy. As Prime Minister, he promised to "bring an end to spin". This, ironically enough, became the new spin. After a mere year in power he had managed to reduce the Labour Party's popularity to the same low level that Margaret Thatcher took eleven years to achieve for the Conservative party,[3][4] although, in fairness, it should be noted that Labour's popularity had been steadily falling for years.
[edit] Religion
Brown is the son of a former Minister and a member of the Church of Scotland. He does not talk about his religious beliefs, but, carrying on Blair's mission to please everyone all the time (at which he failed miserably) he has claimed that all 'philosophies' (religions from context) share the same root motivations, and are about helping one another. In keeping with this somewhat vague statement, Brown is an alleged avowed socialist and collectivist.