Gordon Brown/Timelines
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Parliamentary Career
Opposition
1983 Elected Member of Parliament for Dunfermline East as a member of the Labour Party under the leadership of Neil Kinnock.
- (Maiden speech[1])
1984 Brown attends Democratic National Convention on San Francisco
1987 General election: Conservative 46% 358 seats; Labour 30% 155 seats; Liberal/SDP alliance 24% 10seats
- Brown appointed Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
1989 Appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
1992 Appointed Shadow Chancellor
- John Smith replaces Neil Kinnock as Leader of the Opposition.
1993 3-day visit to the United States and meeting with Alan Greenspan.
1994 Death of John Smith
- 31 May - Meeting with Tony Blair at the Granita restaurant
- 8 September - Strategy conference at the Chewton Glen hotel
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Constitutional innovations1997-98.
- Independence for the Bank of England
- Five tests for Euro membership
- Code for Fiscal Stability
- Pre-budget reports
Fiscal contraction 1997-2000
- the budget balance changed from a deficit of 2.4 per cent of national income in 1996-7 to a surplus of 2.4 per cent in 2000-01, and the national debt fell from 42.5% of in 1996–97 to 30.7% of national income in 2000–01[1]
Public sector investment and fiscal expansion 2000-2007
Budgetary changes 2000-2007
- increased investment in health and education
- the current budget balance moved from a surplus of 2.4 per cengt of national income in 2000–01 to a deficit of 0.3 per cent of national income by 2007–08 and the national debt rose to 36.5 per cent of national income in 2007–08.[1]
The Euro
- 9 June - Brown delivers the Treasury assessment on the euro, saying that economic tests for UK membership have not been met.
International activities 1999-2007
- Chair of the International Monetary and Finance Committee 1999-2007
Prime Minister
2007-2009 Financial Crisis
- £500 billion bank rescue plan [2], including powers to take equity stakes in ailing banks and an undertaking to guarantee interbank loans.
- October 2008 Britain's bank rescue plan adopted in the EU and the USA[3]
2010 Northern Ireland agreement
2010 Deficit reduction plans
- Fiscal Responsibility Act[4] - imposes a duty on the Treasury to ensure that by the financial year ending 2014 public sector net borrowing as a percentage of GDP is at least halved from its level for the financial year ending 2010, and to make continuing reductions thereafter.
2010 General election
Opposition
Personal history
- 1951 Born, Glasgow, Son of John Brown, a Presbeterian church minister
- 1954 The family move to Kirkaldy
- 1961 Starts at Kirkaldy High School
- 1966 Passes A-level examinations with 5 A grades
- 1967 Starts at Edinburgh University
- becomes a serious Rugby player, but sporting career is ended by an accident in which he loses the sight of his left eye
- 1970 Awarded a Master of Arts (with 1st class honours)
- 1973 Elected Student Rector, Edinburgh University
- Becomes a member of the Scottish Labour Party's National Executive
- 1976: Politics lecturer, Glasgow College of Technology
- Selected as prospective parliamentary candidate for Edinburgh South
- 1980: Journalist (current affairs) Scottish Television
- 1982: Doctor of Philosophy, Edinburgh University
- 1983: Selected as prospective parliamentary candidate for Dunfermline East - and elected to parliament
- 1996: Appointed Member of Privy Council
- 2000: Marriage to Sarah Macaulay
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Robert Chote, Rowena Crawford, Carl Emmerson and Gemma Tetlow: The public finances: 1997 to 2010, Institute of Fiscal Studies, 2010
- ↑ Rescue Plan for UK Banks Unveiled, BBC News 8 October 2008
- ↑ Paul Krugman: Gordon Does Good, New York Times, October 12 2008
- ↑ Fiscal Responsibility Act, Stationery Office, February 2010