MNeagle
11th May 2010, 12:49 PM
May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gordon Brown resigned as Britain’s prime minister after talks on a possible Labour- Liberal Democrat coalition collapsed, paving the way for Conservative leader David Cameron to succeed him.
“I have informed the queen’s private secretary that it’s my intention to tender my resignation to the queen, and should she accept, I shall advise her to invite the leader of the opposition to form a government,†Brown said outside his official residence in London before making the five-minute drive to Buckingham Palace.
Cameron, 43, will form the first Conservative administration since 1997. Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats are weighing whether to join in a coalition or support a minority government. Cameron will now follow Brown to the palace, where Queen Elizabeth will appoint him as the new premier.
The announcement ends five days of unprecedented haggling among the parties after the inconclusive May 6 election. It also brings to a close 13 years of Labour rule in the U.K., during which the longest economic expansion for 200 years was followed by the deepest recession in more than a century.
The pound rose, buoyed by expectations that Cameron’s party will move to cut the record budget deficit. Sterling climbed 0.9 percent to $1.4978 at 7:21 p.m. in London.
‘Favorite Outcome’
“A Conservative-Liberal democrat coalition is the market’s favorite outcome,†said Philip Shaw, chief U.K. economist at Investec Plc in London.
Clegg must now get the backing of his party’s lawmakers and federal executive, who meet in London at 7:30 p.m. Conservative members of Parliament convene at 8 p.m.
“I have been privileged to learn much about the very best of human nature, and a fair amount too about its frailties, including my own,†Brown said in the speech that ended his 35- month tenure, with his wife Sarah by his side. They then walked down Downing Street, hand-in-hand with their two sons, before getting into the car to see the queen.
The Conservatives won 306 districts in the election, a net gain of 97 from the previous vote in 2005. Labour had a net loss of 91 seats to end with 258. The Liberal Democrats lost five seats and now have 57 members of the 650-seat House of Commons. It was the first hung Parliament after an election since 1974.
‘Judgment on Me’
“As leader of my party, I must accept that is a judgment on me,†Brown said of the election result yesterday.
Born in Glasgow in 1951, Brown was the second of three boys who were raised on the sermons of their father, a Presbyterian minister.
“He honestly believes that work is good for the soul, which should mean that his own is in no danger,†Paul Routledge wrote in his 1998 biography of Brown, alluding to his reputation among colleagues as a workaholic.
Recognized as a bright child, Brown was put in an accelerated schooling program that resulted in him entering university at the age of 16 and had earned a degree in history from Edinburgh University by the time he was 20.
Brown worked as a lecturer, journalist and author while angling for a seat in Parliament. He would win one in 1983, four years after Margaret Thatcher gained power and embarked on free- market reforms opposed at every turn by Labour.
Tony Blair
Arriving as Labour approached its electoral nadir, Brown was given a small office to share with another parliamentary freshman -- Tony Blair.
“Subsequently, some would say that the coupling was not mere coincidence but the maneuver of a skilful matchmaker in the whips’ office brokering the notion that the two novices epitomized the party’s future hopes,†Tom Bower wrote in his 2004 biography of Brown. “That is unlikely. The two new MPs were markedly different, although bonds would eventually develop.â€
Fourteen years passed between when he won his seat in a district near Edinburgh and when Labour finally took power. In that time, he was overtaken by Blair. When Labour formed a government in 1997, Blair, now 55, and not Brown headed it.
Within a week of taking the reins at the Treasury, Brown ceded the government’s power to set interest rates to the Bank of England.
As the economy grew, the chancellor claimed repeatedly that he had abolished the Conservative cycle of “boom and bust.â€
It took another 10 years before Brown finally reached his goal. Once he did, he floundered.
Election U-Turn
Brown’s premiership was a catalogue of political setbacks: a last-moment retreat after signaling he would call an early election; the reversal of a tax increase on low-wage earners; and the sacking of his media adviser over a smear campaign aimed at opposition lawmakers, and at least three attempted mutinies by Labour lawmakers.
“History will remember him as somebody who had all the credentials for the job, had been preparing for it for years,†Conservative lawmaker Michael Fallon said in an interview in 2008. Yet once in power, Brown “came apart in the very area he had specialized in.â€
For Brown, the financial crisis and the longest recession on record dominated his time in office, diverting him from plans to reduce poverty and improve schools.
Within three months of becoming prime minister, he scrapped plans for an early election at the last moment and denied that his decision had been influenced by the narrowing of his lead in opinion polls.
Final Budget
In the months that followed, he came under increasing pressure to admit he made a mistake in his last budget as chancellor. In March 2007, with Blair in his final months as prime minister and Brown his likely but not certain successor, the end of the chancellor’s budget statement held a surprise: a cut in the income-tax rate to 20 percent from 22 percent.
What Brown didn’t mention was the removal of a 10 percent “starting rate,†with the result that lower earners ended up paying more. It was more than a year before he backed down, after Labour lawmakers threatened to vote against the 2008 budget.
As Brown has struggled through Britain’s financial crisis, there have been moments of promise, and even success. With some of the U.K.’s biggest banks on the brink of collapse, Brown moved in October 2008 to take stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc. Princeton University economist Paul Krugman, on the day he won the Nobel Prize, suggested Brown had “saved the world.â€
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aF1_0yE0ikS4&pos=8
“I have informed the queen’s private secretary that it’s my intention to tender my resignation to the queen, and should she accept, I shall advise her to invite the leader of the opposition to form a government,†Brown said outside his official residence in London before making the five-minute drive to Buckingham Palace.
Cameron, 43, will form the first Conservative administration since 1997. Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats are weighing whether to join in a coalition or support a minority government. Cameron will now follow Brown to the palace, where Queen Elizabeth will appoint him as the new premier.
The announcement ends five days of unprecedented haggling among the parties after the inconclusive May 6 election. It also brings to a close 13 years of Labour rule in the U.K., during which the longest economic expansion for 200 years was followed by the deepest recession in more than a century.
The pound rose, buoyed by expectations that Cameron’s party will move to cut the record budget deficit. Sterling climbed 0.9 percent to $1.4978 at 7:21 p.m. in London.
‘Favorite Outcome’
“A Conservative-Liberal democrat coalition is the market’s favorite outcome,†said Philip Shaw, chief U.K. economist at Investec Plc in London.
Clegg must now get the backing of his party’s lawmakers and federal executive, who meet in London at 7:30 p.m. Conservative members of Parliament convene at 8 p.m.
“I have been privileged to learn much about the very best of human nature, and a fair amount too about its frailties, including my own,†Brown said in the speech that ended his 35- month tenure, with his wife Sarah by his side. They then walked down Downing Street, hand-in-hand with their two sons, before getting into the car to see the queen.
The Conservatives won 306 districts in the election, a net gain of 97 from the previous vote in 2005. Labour had a net loss of 91 seats to end with 258. The Liberal Democrats lost five seats and now have 57 members of the 650-seat House of Commons. It was the first hung Parliament after an election since 1974.
‘Judgment on Me’
“As leader of my party, I must accept that is a judgment on me,†Brown said of the election result yesterday.
Born in Glasgow in 1951, Brown was the second of three boys who were raised on the sermons of their father, a Presbyterian minister.
“He honestly believes that work is good for the soul, which should mean that his own is in no danger,†Paul Routledge wrote in his 1998 biography of Brown, alluding to his reputation among colleagues as a workaholic.
Recognized as a bright child, Brown was put in an accelerated schooling program that resulted in him entering university at the age of 16 and had earned a degree in history from Edinburgh University by the time he was 20.
Brown worked as a lecturer, journalist and author while angling for a seat in Parliament. He would win one in 1983, four years after Margaret Thatcher gained power and embarked on free- market reforms opposed at every turn by Labour.
Tony Blair
Arriving as Labour approached its electoral nadir, Brown was given a small office to share with another parliamentary freshman -- Tony Blair.
“Subsequently, some would say that the coupling was not mere coincidence but the maneuver of a skilful matchmaker in the whips’ office brokering the notion that the two novices epitomized the party’s future hopes,†Tom Bower wrote in his 2004 biography of Brown. “That is unlikely. The two new MPs were markedly different, although bonds would eventually develop.â€
Fourteen years passed between when he won his seat in a district near Edinburgh and when Labour finally took power. In that time, he was overtaken by Blair. When Labour formed a government in 1997, Blair, now 55, and not Brown headed it.
Within a week of taking the reins at the Treasury, Brown ceded the government’s power to set interest rates to the Bank of England.
As the economy grew, the chancellor claimed repeatedly that he had abolished the Conservative cycle of “boom and bust.â€
It took another 10 years before Brown finally reached his goal. Once he did, he floundered.
Election U-Turn
Brown’s premiership was a catalogue of political setbacks: a last-moment retreat after signaling he would call an early election; the reversal of a tax increase on low-wage earners; and the sacking of his media adviser over a smear campaign aimed at opposition lawmakers, and at least three attempted mutinies by Labour lawmakers.
“History will remember him as somebody who had all the credentials for the job, had been preparing for it for years,†Conservative lawmaker Michael Fallon said in an interview in 2008. Yet once in power, Brown “came apart in the very area he had specialized in.â€
For Brown, the financial crisis and the longest recession on record dominated his time in office, diverting him from plans to reduce poverty and improve schools.
Within three months of becoming prime minister, he scrapped plans for an early election at the last moment and denied that his decision had been influenced by the narrowing of his lead in opinion polls.
Final Budget
In the months that followed, he came under increasing pressure to admit he made a mistake in his last budget as chancellor. In March 2007, with Blair in his final months as prime minister and Brown his likely but not certain successor, the end of the chancellor’s budget statement held a surprise: a cut in the income-tax rate to 20 percent from 22 percent.
What Brown didn’t mention was the removal of a 10 percent “starting rate,†with the result that lower earners ended up paying more. It was more than a year before he backed down, after Labour lawmakers threatened to vote against the 2008 budget.
As Brown has struggled through Britain’s financial crisis, there have been moments of promise, and even success. With some of the U.K.’s biggest banks on the brink of collapse, Brown moved in October 2008 to take stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc. Princeton University economist Paul Krugman, on the day he won the Nobel Prize, suggested Brown had “saved the world.â€
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aF1_0yE0ikS4&pos=8