| Name | James Gordon Brown |
| Nick name | Flash Gordon |
| Profession | Politician |
| Native place | Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Date of Birth | 20 February 1951 |
| Nationality | British |
| School | Kirkcaldy High School, |
| Education | Doctorate from Edinburgh University |
| Family | Father: Rev. John Ebenezer Brown Mother: Elizabeth Wife: Sarah Macaulay Sons: John Brown and James Fraser Brown |
| Political Party | Labour |
| Prime Minister of England | From June 27, 2007 succeeding Tony Blair |
| His Thesis | The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918-29. |
| Inspiration | His parents were the inspiration for his career in politics and the source of his “moral compass”. |
| Brown’s policies | Iraq: has pledged to reduce number of troop when possible US: is likely to have a slightly cooler approach Europe: Still no to Euro currency Economy: cuts in the headline corporation and income tax rates from next year Security: there must be a balance between defending Britain’s security and protecting civil liberties. Euro: “I didn’t support entry to the Euro, not because I’m against it in principle but because I didn’t think it was economically right for Britain.” |
| Marriage | * Married Sarah on Aug. 3,2000 in Fife, Scotland, with close family and friends * Met his future wife when she was organizing Labour party events. |
| Tony Blair | “I hope we’ll remain friends for a very long time. We first met about 25 years ago. We shared an office for quite a long time. We talked through all the issues that were relevant to the creation of New Labour. Every political relationship undergoes ups and downs but there’s no time in modern British history where you’ve had the same Chancellor and the same Prime Minister for 10 years. And so it’s been quite a unique political partnership and I will always feel honored to have served under his leadership.” |
| Success as Chancellor of Exchequer | * froze income taxes and increased government expenditures. * pushed for the Bank of England’s independence, credited for Britain’s steady economic boom since World War II. |
| First romance | with an exiled Romanian Princess, Margarita du Romaine who was a god-daughter of Prince Philip and 81st in line to the British throne. |
| Also dated | * TV journalist Sheena Macdonald * Edinburgh lawyer Marion Caldwell |
| As a person | Very hardworking, known to take serious reading on holidays. |
| Management style | “Stalinist” management style |
| Favorite phrase | ‘West has a duty’ to help the world’s poor. |
| Favouite sports | Football, Tennis |
| Eye sight | Blind in his left eye. He was diagnosed with a detached retina – thought to be the result of being kicked in the head during an end of term rugby match at Kirkcaldy High. |
| Academics | * he was sent to Kirkcaldy High School at the age of 10, where he and fellow members of the “e-stream” were taught in separate classes as part of an experiment in academic fast-tracking. * sat his Highers, the Scottish equivalent of A-levels, two years early and was named the “Dux”, or leading scholar of his year. * At the age of 16, he had joined his older brother John at Edinburgh University, the youngest fresher there since 1945 and also making him one of only four university educated Prime Ministers who did not attend Oxford or Cambridge * Brown received honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh in 2003 and Newcastle University in 2007 (DCL) |
| Admires | Edith Cavell Dietrich Bonhoeffer Raoul Wallenberg Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy Nelson Mandela, Dame Cicely Saunders Aung San Suu Kyi |
| Blair Brown pact | * Gordon Brown would not stand in the Labour Party leadership election, effectively giving Blair a clear run, and letting him lead the Labour Party in the 1997 general election. * If Blair acquired the job of Prime Minister, he would stay in the job for an agreed period of time. He would then resign and hand the job over to Brown |
| Path to 10, Downing street | 1972: Rector, Edinburgh University 1975: Temporary lecturer 1976: Politics lecturer, Glasgow College of Technology 1980: Television journalist, STV current affairs 1983: Labour MP, Dunfermline East 1985: Opposition front bench trade and industry spokesman 1987: Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury 1989: Shadow trade and industry spokesman 1992: Shadow chancellor 1997: Chancellor of the Exchequer 2007: Prime Minister of Britain |
| Facts | * His mother Elizabeth described him as “the shyest member of the family” * In April 1962, aged 11, he wrote an article about a church campaign in favour of television commercials against the twin demons of alcohol and tobacco. * daughter Jennifer Jane died shortly after birth * His father, Rev. John Ebenezer Brown (1914-December 1998), was a Church of Scotland minister. * Inspired by his father’s sermons, Gordon and his older brother John set up a tuck shop in the family’s garage and started a newspaper, The Gazette, to raise money for refugees. * During a meeting with Pope Benedict in Rome earlier this year, Brown presented the pontiff a selection of sermons delivered by his father in the Presbyterian Church. * He was the longest-serving chancellor of the past 100 years, serving since the Labor Party, under Mr. Blair, came into power in 1997. * During the 1997 election campaign Gordon Brown was said to have worked an average of 18 hours a day, six days a week – after running on a treadmill for an hour each morning. * He is modern Britain’s first PM with a serious physical handicap – he is blind in his right eye – and the first from Scotland since Alec Douglas-Home in 1963-64 |
| Motto | “I will try my utmost.” |
| His Belief | “Every child should have the best start in life, that everybody should have the chance of a job, that nobody should be brought up suffering in poverty. I would call them the beliefs that you associate with civilisation and dignity.” |
| Address | 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA FAX: 020 7925 0918 |
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