More languages
More actions
Gordon Brown | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 20 February 1951 (age 74) Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland |
| Political orientation | Neoliberalism Imperialism |
| Political party | Labour |
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair before becoming Prime Minister upon Blair's resignation. In recent years he has served as United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education since 2012, and he was appointed as World Health Organization Ambassador for Global Health Financing in 2021.
Early life[edit | edit source]
Brown was born on 20 February 1951 in the town of Giffnock, located in Renfrewshire in central Scotland near Glasgow. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Christianity had a strong influence on Brown. From 1967 he attended the University of Edinburgh studying history where he became influenced by radical politics, though he never advanced beyond reformism and rejected direct action.[1]
Chancellorship (1997–2007)[edit | edit source]
As Chancellor, Brown continued the process of implenting Neoliberalism started by Margaret Thatcher, and was the driving ideological force behind New Labour. Brown's focus was on economic growth with little emphasis on social justice and to achieve this he continued the process of privatization and restructuring the economy to the benefit of capitalists. While this growth was used to fund higher spending on healthcare and education, increased inequality was seen as an acceptable sideffect of this growth.[2]
Abroad, Brown attempted to obscure British imperialism by increasing funding to fight poverty in the global south; pledging £1bn that he said would pay 10% of the developing world's foreign debt bill.[3] Whilst in Tanzania in a 2015 trip to Africa, Brown defended colonialism and declared that: "the days of Britain having to apologise for its colonial history are over." Less than a week after making this statement, images emerged of British soldiers torturing Iraqis at Camp Breadbasket.[4]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ John Newsinger (2007). "Brown’s Journey from Reformism to Neoliberalism" International Socialism. Archived from the original on 2023-12-20.
- ↑ Christopher John Nock (2011). The Elephant in the Room : Why Gordon Brown and New Labour got things so Wrong. Observatoire de la société britannique, vol.10 (pp. 11-27).
- ↑ "'No UK apology' for colonial past" (2005-01-15). BBC. Archived from the original on 2013-10-07.
- ↑ Gary Younge (2005-03-01). "Cruel and usual" The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2025-03-05.