Gordon Brown

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U.K. Politics

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God Save the Queen?
I was a university student and lecturer once, so I know universities stand for truth, honesty, and the pursuit of knowledge. When I became a politician I had to abandon all of that.
—Gordon Brown

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 he legally had to. Which sucked for Labour, because they went down.[1]

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. He then largely kept himself out of the spotlight until being proclaimed "Saviour of the Union" in 2014.[2]

Contents

[edit] Personal life

Gordon Brown was born in 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland. He gained a Ph.D 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 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 was often criticised for a lack of charisma and social skills, unlike his predecessor, 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.[3] As Prime Minister, he promised to "bring an end to spin." This, ironically enough, became the new spin. He was also a notorious micromanager.[4]

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 Tories,[5][6] 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Well not really, they still have 40% of seats in the House of Commons.
  2. Gordon Brown did more for the UK in these 13 minutes than in three years as prime minister, Quartz
  3. The Queen takes a swipe at Gordon Brown over gold sale, New Statesman
  4. Brown and the ‘bigoted woman’: the control freak caught out, LSE
  5. Labour slumps to historic defeat, BBC News
  6. Labour suffers wipeout in its worst local election results, The Times
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