# Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown, British MP, served 2007–2010.

“James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007. Brown has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1983, first for Dunfermline East and currently for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. A doctoral graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Brown spent his early career working as both a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He entered Parliament in 1983 as the MP for Dunfermline East. He joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade, and was later promoted to become Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1992. After Labour's victory in 1997, he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, becoming the longest-serving holder of that office in modern history. In 2007, Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister and Labour Leader and Brown was chosen to replace him in an uncontested election. After initial rises in opinion polls following Brown becoming Prime Minister, Labour's popularity declined with the onset of a recession in 2008, leading to poor results in the local and European elections in 2009. A year later, Labour lost 91 seats in the House of Commons at the 2010 general election, the party's biggest loss of seats in a single general election since 1931, giving the Conservative Party a plurality and resulting in a hung parliament. On 10 May 2010, Brown announced he would stand down as leader of the Labour Party, and instructed the party to put into motion the processes to elect a new leader. On 11 May 2010, Brown officially resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by David Cameron, and on 25 September 2010, he was succeeded as Leader of the Labour Party by →Ed Miliband. Brown was born at the Orchard Maternity Nursing Home in Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland. His father was John Ebenezer Brown, a minister of the Church of Scotland and a strong influence on Brown. Brown was brought up with his elder brother John and younger brother Andrew Brown in a manse in Kirkcaldy — the largest town in Fife, Scotland across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. In common with many other notable Scots, he is therefore often referred to as a “son of the manse”.”

see more vita at Wikipedia →Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown may be a dubious background player.

See →BBC, 16-May-2007: Madeleine fighting fund launched:

…Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann, of Glasgow, visited Parliament on Wednesday to lobby MPs and peers for support. She said that, in a personal meeting, Mr Brown had offered support on “a practical and a personal level”…

See →The Guardian, 27-May-2007: Madeleine: Brown urged police to give more details, Chancellor acts after parents voice their concern at the lack of disclosure by Portuguese detectives:

Gordon Brown has personally intervened in the search for missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann after her parents became frustrated by the lack of progress in the police investigation. After a series of telephone conversations with Madeleine's father, Gerry McCann in recent days, the Chancellor requested assistance from the Foreign Office and the Home Office. He asked that pressure be brought to bear on the Portuguese authorities to allow more information about the inquiry to be made public. Gerry and his wife, Kate, have been desperate for a description of a man seen carrying what appears to have been a child on 3 May to be made public, but Portuguese police refused for three weeks because of the country's laws, which forbid the details of an investigation being released.

The Observer understands that Brown gave the McCanns an assurance he would do 'anything he can' to help. The British embassy duly applied pressure on the Portuguese authorities to find more flexibility in their secrecy laws. British ambassador John Buck visited the Algarve last Thursday. A day later Portuguese police made a U-turn and issued a detailed description of the man, said to be white, 35 to 40, 5ft 10in and of medium build, with hair longer around the neck, wearing a dark jacket, light beige trousers and dark shoes. Asked whether Brown had influenced the decision, Clarence Mitchell, a Foreign Office spokesman for the McCann family in the Algarve, said: 'Draw your own conclusions.' He said in a statement: 'I can confirm that telephone conversations have taken place between Gerry McCann and Chancellor Gordon Brown. During them, Mr Brown offered both Gerry and Kate his full support in their efforts to find Madeleine, although details of the conversations will remain private.'

Although they have praised the efforts being made to find their daughter, the McCanns were said to be increasingly frustrated in recent days at delays and communication problems. The family have met lawyers in the Algarve and threatened legal action to push for the information to be released because of the exceptional circumstances. The Observer can confirm that a top law firm in London had been asked late last week to seek legal avenues through which the McCanns could be kept up to date on the latest developments in the investigations.

It also emerged yesterday that The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall had been following the case 'closely and with deep concern'. The McCanns yesterday emerged from their apartment to say that they had had an 'amicable and very constructive' meeting with police. 'We very much welcome the decision of the police authorities to release details of a man seen by witnesses here in Praia da Luz on Thursday, 3 May, the night of Madeleine's disappearance,' Gerry said in a statement. 'The release of this important information followed an earlier meeting we had with senior police officers. We feel sure that this sighting of a man with what appeared to be a child in his arms is both significant and relevant to.“

…The campaign fund is now well over £300,000, according to Mitchell. He stressed that the McCanns 'never asked for a single euro'. In a new interview yesterday the McCanns spoke about their feelings since the night they left their three children asleep in a holiday complex apartment while they dined with friends in the complex's grounds, returning to find Madeleine had been abducted, and their refusal to give up hope of welcoming her back with 'a very big hug'….The McCanns are drawing strength from their twins, two-year-old Sean and Amelie. Kate said: 'The twins are so young they just get on with things, but obviously we don't want them to forget about Madeleine. We are hoping to see a child psychologist to explain what has happened to Madeleine to the twins.' She added: 'They help us to get through this. We are a strong family and they were so close to Madeleine, only 20 months apart.' Gerry said: 'We could have lost the twins too. There were three children in the room. That's the worst nightmare… This is so rare. It's a million to one. We really have to make sure it doesn't affect the twins growing up and their normal childhood'….There is nothing more I would like than to see Madeleine walk in, so we could use the fund to help find other missing children.'

From →BBC 9-July-2007: PM thanks Portugal over Madeleine

“Prime Minister Gordon Brown has praised his Portuguese counterpart over his country's efforts to find missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann. Mr Brown thanked Jose Socrates [Portuguese prime minister] for his government's work during a Downing Street summit. Mr Brown said: “We are grateful to the Portuguese authorities for the time and effort and dedication that has been put into this investigation.” Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of 3 May. After the meeting, Mr Brown told reporters he had spoken to Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, who had talked of their appreciation of the work of Portugal's police. He said: “I thanked the Portuguese authorities for the work they have done to trace Madeleine McCann. I expressed the thanks of Madeleine's parents to the Portuguese authorities for their efforts and said we would do everything in our power to secure the safe return of Madeleine to her parents.” He added: “Obviously there are issues they want to be assured about and I have raised these with the Portuguese prime minister. He has assured me that everything that can be done will be done and obviously we look for progress in something that's heart-rending in its sadness, that a young child can be separated from her parents for so long.” Mr Socrates insisted that the case remained a high priority for his government. He added: “It's important for Great Britain but it's important for Portugal, and it's very touching in public opinion in Great Britain but also in Portugal. Everyone in Portugal and the family knows we are doing our best.” ”

See also Newspaper Sol, Portugal, 07-Aug-2007: ”…Sol knows that Gerry McCann has regular contact with Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister. Clarence Mitchell – who was the first spokesman for the McCanns and is now in the press cabinet at Nr. 10, Downing Street – confirms those contacts. “I know there is a communication line between Gerry and Gordon Brown. I know they talk. But I don't know what they talk about, because those are informal conversations”, he clarified, further adding: “The Madeleine case is treated whenever there are bilateral meetings between Portugal and the United Kingdom. Gordon Brown is sensitive to the case and wants it solved quickly”…“

On 12 Sep. 2007 he visited Leicestershire police →National Archives, PM and Jacqui Smith visit Beaumont Leys Police Station: ”Gordon Brown visited a police station in Leicester to see first hand how the police are tackling crime. Accompanied by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the PM travelled to the Beaumont Leys police station in the north west of the city. During a tour of the station Mr Brown discussed neighbourhood policing and engagement with local residents and police officers. “

See on his role in the Maddie-Case e.g. →Joana Morais Blog: Mr. Brown comes to Town (06-Nov-2014)

In her diary, Kate McCann wrote: “Wednesday, MAY 23 [2007]: Gordon Brown (then Chancellor and PM in waiting) called and spoke with Gerry - very kind and giving encouragement. Feeling a bit emotional afterwards.”

On the 27th May 2007, and with the original →source being the Guardian, Brendan de Beer wrote: Gordon Brown has personally intervened in the search for missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann after her parents became frustrated by the lack of progress in the police investigation. After a series of telephone conversations with Madeleine's father, Gerry McCann, in recent days, the Chancellor requested assistance from the Foreign Office and the Home Office. He asked that pressure be brought to bear on the Portuguese authorities to allow more information about the inquiry to be made public. …The Observer understands that Brown gave the McCanns an assurance he would do “anything he can” to help. The British embassy duly applied pressure on the Portuguese authorities to find more flexibility in their secrecy laws. British ambassador John Buck visited the Algarve last Thursday. … Asked whether Brown had influenced the decision, Clarence Mitchell, a Foreign Office spokesman for the McCann family in the Algarve, said: “Draw your own conclusions.” He said in a statement: “I can confirm that telephone conversations have taken place between Gerry McCann and Chancellor Gordon Brown. During them, Mr Brown offered both Gerry and Kate his full support in their efforts to find Madeleine, although details of the conversations will remain private.”

See also article →The Guardian (02-June-2007) Neverending story: ”…Until the evening of Thursday May 3, Kate and Gerry McCann were an anonymous couple from a small East Midlands town. Today they are at the centre of what has become an international publicity hurricane of quite unprecedented scale. Their daughter's face, screened at the FA Cup final, was seen by an estimated 500 million people;… Gordon Brown, while campaigning to become Labour leader, has worn a yellow ribbon to show solidarity with the McCanns; many of his colleagues did the same, along with….“

…Jill Renwick, a friend of the McCanns, …claims that she asked John Brown, the brother of Gordon to ask the PM in waiting for his help: “I stopped him [John Brown] in the street the day afterwards and said, 'These are my friends. Do you think you could speak to Gordon about it?' And he said of course. I don't know if anything came about that way.” What was blatantly obvious though was that Gordon Brown was firmly on the side of the McCanns. He made the following statement that said as much: “Every parent will be sympathising in their hour of need.”

Relationships appeared to turn sour though, when in an article published by The Daily Mirror, dated February 20, 2010 it was reported that: “Kate and Gerry McCann yesterday accused the British Government of hampering the search for their missing daughter. … The couple say despite meetings with Gordon Brown and top UK officials, the three-year investigation has stalled. And they claim red tape is blocking their own inquiries using private detectives. ….”

Gonçalo Amaral had this to say about the political intervention: “I don’t regret what I did, I did it with conviction, I did it to defend the investigation model, what a criminal investigation is supposed to be. Earlier, you spoke about the politically correct, the politically correct policeman. It is my understanding that criminal investigations cannot be politically correct, because they can’t be concerned with politics. And what happened, and continues to happen, is that we have to be politically correct, subordinate to the English power. That happens, it happened on the 2nd of October [of 2007] at the Lisbon Treaty, there were discussions between José Sócrates, then prime minister, and Gordon Brown, the English prime minister, who told the newspapers that he had asked the Portuguese prime minister about the [Maddie] case. So even before that it was already a political case. And when politics intrude into a criminal investigation, nothing will end well, whether the criminal investigation relates to a homicide, a burglary, a disappearance, or corruption.” (publ. in Porto Canal interview, March 14, 2014)

See →Wikipedia: In April 2011, media reports linked Brown with the role as the next Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund following the scheduled retirement of →Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Brown's successor and Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, supported Brown for the role while the Prime Minister, David Cameron, voiced opposition to this. Following the arrest of Strauss-Kahn for alleged sexual assault in May 2011, and his subsequent resignation, these reports re-surfaced. Support for Brown among economists was mixed but British Government backing for his candidature was not forthcoming and instead supported Christine Lagarde—the eventual successful candidate—for the post.

See also Gordon Brown at his famous encounter in Rochdale with “Duffy” →Gordon Brown and "Bigoted Woman" IN FULL - Rochdale 28 April 2010 and criticism by →Conservative Home. See its connection to →MP Simon Danczuk: Gordon Brown backs Rochdale Observer campaign.

Former PM Gordon Brown didn't pay tribute to Margaret Thatcher at her funeral.

See also his mutual Freemasonry connection:

- Gordon Brown Masonic Handshake at → Steel Magnolia
- Gordon Brown Masonic Handshake at → deliberation with explanations (The Ma-Ha-Bone)

See also background The Sinister Clue to the "Maddie-Case"

See also PM's:

Tony Blair, served 1997–2007, born 1953.

David Cameron, serving since 2010, born 1966.

See also →Wikipedia The Blair-Brown Deal

14 May 2007 →Channel 4, Gordon Brown: Fit For Office?:

“Some very senior figures on Gordon Brown's own side are certain he is unfit for office: one has called him “control freak” and another “psychologically flawed” and one serving cabinet minister has said he'd be a “fucking disaster” as Prime Minister. Over the last nine months Dispatches has carried out the most in-depth study ever done for television on the Chancellor, interviewing cabinet ministers, MPs, top civil servants, economists, journalists and friends. The programme, presented by Peter Oborne, forensically examines why these claims have been made by some of Gordon Brown's colleagues.

“I've been a political journalist for fifteen years and have closely followed the career of Gordon Brown. I have written pieces that both criticize and praise the Chancellor but one thing is unarguable - he is a massive politician of exceptional gifts, the kind of figure that comes along once in a generation - and in a few weeks time he'll be Prime Minister. And yet some very senior figures on his own side are certain he is unfit for office - one has called him a 'control freak', another 'psychologically flawed' and one serving cabinet minister has said he'd be a 'fucking disaster',” says Peter Oborne. Dispatches forensically examines why these claims have been made by some of Gordon Brown's colleagues, and whether they are true. And it will ask the biggest question of all - should we, the public, share these fears of Gordon Brown holding ultimate power? Over the last nine months Dispatches has carried out the most in-depth study ever done for television on the Chancellor, based on in-depth interviews with more than a 100 witnesses who include cabinet ministers, MPs, top civil servants, economists, journalists, and friends.

So what sort of Prime Minister will Gordon Brown be? And the heart of the answer to that is a puzzle thrown up by the research - the contrast between the cold antipathy often felt by colleagues and officials and the warm, private man known to his closest friends. It's clear that Gordon Brown can be a warm man capable of individual acts of great kindness. He's also a man of deep political drive who seems to operate through a secretive and very small circle of trusted intimates and advisers; a group who have tended to be lesser talents who run no risk of outshining him. Senior civil servants describe in great detail what they observed.

Again and again examples are given of how Brown snubbed, cut, bullied, ignored and ploughed his own furrow. Even friends acknowledge the problem. The film examines a double allegation of a refusal to collaborate with his colleagues allied to vindictiveness against those who threaten to stand in his way. These character traits have mainly been concealed from the public but they have shown themselves in a series of feuds, particularly with potential challengers; for example his clashes with Robin Cook, Mo Mowlam, Peter Mandelson and Alan Milburn.

Brown's relationship with Blair is also put under scrutiny. Brown arrived at 11 Downing Street still believing he should be the man in No.10. He'd been given by Blair unprecedented authority over economic and domestic policy. Brown has interpreted this as a licence to defy No. 10. Numerous and authoritative accounts of Brown's behaviour in government, the sulks and surliness, refusal to co-operate - according to one extremely well-placed insider he even stormed into No 10 and hurled obscenities at Tony Blair - paint a very different picture from the warm man loved by his friends. In conclusion Peter says, “Gordon Brown is going to be the next Prime Minister. It's important for all of us - except perhaps the Conservative opposition - that he should be a success. But we're taking a giant leap in the dark. Gordon Brown is a brilliant man, capable of great warmth and human decency - but he's also very closed, clannish, suspicious, tormented and very difficult to deal with. The success of his premiership depends on whether, when he attains his lifetime ambition and enters No.10 Downing Street, he can become a changed character.””

See also 21 May 2012 →Huffington Post, UK Politician Peter Mandelson: Gordon Brown, Tony Blair Got 'Closer Than Wise' To Murdoch

One of the British Labour Party's most seasoned operatives said his party's leadership may have gotten too close to media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. Peter Mandelson, who served under both Prime Minister Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown, said both men may have gotten “closer than was wise” to the Australian media mogul. Mandelson was speaking Monday before Lord Justice Brian Leveson's media ethics inquiry, which is examining links between Britain's media and senior politicians. Leveson's inquiry is examining whether politicians and press barons traded favors in the run-up to the phone hacking scandal that brought down Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid in 2011. Much recent attention has focused on the warm relations between Murdoch and several British prime ministers, from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron.

Latest News:

1. →The Telegraph, Gordon Brown: where has he been since losing the general election? (18 Feb. 2014)
2. →Daily Mail, Brown primed to be top Scot (04 May 2014)
3. →The Independent, Gordon Brown will come out fighting for No vote on Scottish independence (08 May 2014)
4. →Breitbart-London, Police to investigate allegations of Labour-LibDem Rochdale deal on paedophiles and sex pests (07 Oct. 2014)