Profile Gordon Brown his priorities as leader

[General Duke]

A prime minister in waiting

 

After a decade in the wings, Gordon Brown is ready to lead the British public in his own way

 

Mark Oliver

Friday May 11, 2007

Guardian Unlimited

 

Even his detractors admit Gordon Brown is a political heavyweight, a "great clunking fist" as Tony Blair recently warned David Cameron and his "flyweight" Tory front bench.

Mr Brown's admirers have described him as intellectually awesome, physically impressive with broad shoulders, morally impeccable and seriously committed. Critics call him dour, and a "control freak" possessed of "Stalinist ruthlessness".

 

The longest-serving chancellor in modern British history is undeniably a man of substance. However, even after more than a decade of scrutiny, his nature remains enigmatic and his depths not fully fathomed. He is the "great puzzle", the New York Times said yesterday.

 

The criticism in 1998, allegedly by Mr Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, that Mr Brown was "psychologically flawed" hurt then and still echoes now. It has long been observed that Mr Brown does not have Mr Blair's easy charisma and nobody seems sure how the British people will warm to him if he reaches No 10.

People who meet him say that while he is fun and gregarious with his infamous small inner circle and others he trusts, he can be awkward with strangers. Some find that endearing, an antidote to the vacuous smarminess of many modern politicians, but many in the Labour party fear it could hurt them at the polls.

 

Mr Brown was born in Glasgow in February 1951, the son of Elizabeth Brown and her Church of Scotland minister husband John Brown. They provided the "moral compass" in his life, Mr Brown said today as he launched his leadership bid.

 

In his youth he suffered a detached retina playing rugby. He spent weeks in a darkened room as he recuperated but it is thought to have left him blind in one eye.

 

At school he was academically rigorous and entered Edinburgh University at the age of 16 to study history. He emerged with a first class degree and later a doctorate, going on to lecture in Edinburgh and work as a journalist at Scottish television.

 

His destiny, though, was politics. He became fully engaged in the Scottish Labour party and in the 1970s was sometimes described as "Red Gord". He first stood for parliament in 1979 and lost, but then became MP for Dunfermline East in Fife in 1983. He served there until 2005 when he became MP for Kircaldy and Cowdenbeath after the reorganisation of Scottish constituencies.

 

Mr Blair also entered parliament in 1983 and shared an office with Mr Brown. The pair became friends, though with an undercurrent of rivalry.

 

When the Labour leader John Smith died unexpectedly in May 1994, many believed Mr Brown was the most likely to succeed him, but Mr Blair emerged from the sidelines. There are two views of Mr Brown's handling of this period: one that he was mourning his friend, the other that he dithered.

 

Some commentators have tried to describe Mr Brown as a Shakespearean character - a Hamlet, who has hemmed and hawed in his rivalry with Mr Blair.

 

During his years as chancellor, Mr Brown notched up many achievements, including giving independence to the Bank of England and establishing his "five economic tests" for joining the euro, which more or less killed it off as a troubling issue.

 

His mistakes included selling 60% of the Bank's gold assets, only to see gold go up in value. And he was damaged by the recent revelation that he ignored the advice of officials when abolishing tax relief on pensions in 1997.

 

His supporters point to his achievements at the Treasury, saying he is driven to making Britain better and holding up his long-standing commitments to tackling child poverty and helping Africa and the developing world.

 

Friends say he has been softened by marriage. He wed the public relations executive Sarah Macaulay in Fife in 2000 after a four-year courtship. In January 2002, their 10-day-old daughter, Jennifer, died after being born two months prematurely. At her funeral Mr Brown declared that Jennifer had transformed his and Sarah's lives twice. "Once by entering our lives, then by leaving."

 

He later told an interviewer that he could not listen to music for a year afterwards as he grieved.

 

The couple's second son, James Fraser, was born in 2006 and diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Mr Brown has said he is optimistic about his son's future. On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme recently Mr Brown was asked if he thought he was liked and if that was important. He said he hoped he was but it was for others to judge. He tried to present a softer side, describing himself as a "family man who has two young children", who had changed as a result of his family experiences in recent years.

 

He frequently holidays in the US, though the Bush administration will be anxious about how Mr Brown might change the tone of the transatlantic relationship should he become prime minister.

 

The chancellor has written several books, most recently one entitled Courage, which examines several characters who have inspired him, including Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Cicely Saunders and Aung San Suu Ky.

 

The starkness of the personal details on his Treasury website biography gives the impression of a man totally committed to politics. It says: "Mr Brown's interests include football, tennis and film."

 

He has a life-long love of Raith Rovers, and once invited a rather uncomfortable-looking Mr Blair to watch a match with him on television in front of the press cameras.

 

This morning, Mr Blair finally gave Mr Brown his long-sought public endorsement as his successor.

 

"He's got what it takes to lead the Labour party and the country," Mr Blair said. "He's an extraordinary talent ... perhaps the most successful chancellor in our history."

 

He had the strength, the experience and the judgement, Mr Blair said. The endorsement ticked all the boxes but Mr Blair's conviction somehow sounded less than full, as if all those years of rivalry had drained something from their relationship.

 

With Mr Blair so unpopular over Iraq, Mr Brown may benefit from the distance between them, though it is a moot question of how far he will be able to generate a sense that he offers a fresh start. Opposition parties have been hammering the line "Blair-Brown government" in recent months.

 

Mr Brown, sometimes described as a brooding prince caught up in the longest sulk in history, now has the crown close to his grasp.

 

Mr Cameron is buoyant in the polls, but Mr Brown has said he believes people have tired of "personality politics" and that we are entering a new phase where people do not just want leaders who tell them what they want to hear.

 

If he is right, then he may manage to keep the crown beyond the next election.

[General Duke]

What are Brown's priorities?

 

The newly confirmed prime minister-in-waiting today declared he would lead a 'new government with new priorities'. Matthew Tempest looks at what exactly that might mean.

 

Thursday May 17, 2007

Guardian Unlimited

 

 

Domestic policy

"My passion is education...[but] my immediate priority is the NHS."

Mr Brown also pointed to the "challenge" of housing as one of his concerns. "In order to learn about the challenges ahead I will spend time at the frontline of the NHS, with doctors, staff and patients, hearing the problems they face, and then I will listen and learn with parents and teachers."

 

Trust

"I will strive to earn your trust - not just in foreign policy, but in schools and hospitals" - a tacit admission of the damage done to the Labour government by Iraq.

 

Mr Brown acknowledged that "the relationship between the politician and the public is not as it might be, and certainly not one that is conducive to participation and turnout and people being attracted to joining political parties".

He insisted that ordinary people outside Westminster were "really interested" in issues like tackling global poverty and improving education, health and housing at home.

 

"I am looking for new ways in which ... we can more properly involve people and engage them in debate about the issues," he said.

 

Iraq

"We cannot deny there have been very big divisions in public opinion over Iraq" he said, but he pointed to the reduction in British troops from around 40,000 to around 7,000, and the withdrawal from three provinces to say that the conflict was now "entering a new stage".

 

He also promised to quickly visit countries where British troops were in action - namely Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Constitution

"We will bring forward proposals to renew our constitution."

 

Mr Brown said: "I believe that people are looking for a new kind of politics in this country - it is an honest and open debate, but it is a means by which people can be more involved and engaged in the decision-making process.

 

"We will put forward proposals about how that might be achieved, and that includes a draft constitutional reform bill."

 

Under questioning from journalists, he later suggested this might include allowing more communities the right to petition local authorities, run their own facilities and hold public servants to account.

 

Whitehall

Mr Brown joked "wait and see" when asked if would rejig Whitehall departments - perhaps as widely speculated by handing energy policy to the department of trade and industry. However, he later hinted he would make whatever "constitution or institutional changes were necessary [and the] right thing to do".

 

Scotland

Mr Brown, a Scot representing a Scottish constituency, said Alex Salmond, the country's new first minister, had taken on "a huge responsibility". But Mr Brown stressed he was personally "committed to the union" and that the result of the Scottish election was "not a vote for separation".

 

"I think it¹s true that two-thirds of those who voted, voted against the option of having a separate or independent Scotland.

 

"And I have a duty to put forward what I think is not just the view of myself but the view of the Scottish and British people on that matter."

 

President George Bush

"The relationship between a British prime minister and an American president must and should be a very strong one, and I look forward to building that relationship with the president of the United States.

 

"The values that the American people hold and the values that the British people hold, those values have been shared right across the decades and right across centuries... values that have endured over the ages."

 

But he stopped significantly short of praising Mr Bush personally, as Mr Blair has done.

 

Accusations of paralysis and suggestions he should take over straight away

"I've always said that Tony Blair should have the right - because of the service he's given to this country - to make his announcement and do things in the time he wants to do.

 

"I'm very happy to honour his wishes in this matter."