History > 2008 > UK > Politics > Prime Minister (I)
 

OPINION

Enlarging the Anglosphere

April 16, 2008
Page A19
The Wall Street Journal
By GORDON BROWN

London

When Winston Churchill met President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the deck of the H.M.S. Prince of Wales in 1941, he spoke of the common bonds between Britain and America: "The same language . . . the same hymns . . . more or less, the same ideals." As he implied, the special relationship should be forged not merely by formal ties between governments, but by widening and deepening understanding and contact between people.

So, I want to suggest how our Atlantic relationship – which has always been rooted in something far more fundamental and lasting than our common interests or even our common history and common language – can be renewed and extended into new areas for a new generation.

First, I am proposing moving cooperation between our universities at a far higher level.

Members of my cabinet benefited from time at U.S. universities, Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and the Marshall and Fulbright scholarships have been bringing U.S. and U.K. students into each other's countries for decades. But I want many more British and American university students to have the chance to study across the Atlantic.

Already some universities are planning to require all of their students to spend some time abroad as part of their degree. The principal of King's College in London and the president of New York University will convene a group to examine how cooperation between U.K. and U.S. institutions can be intensified, starting with the potential for expanding faculty and research exchanges. And I can give a commitment that British students who need financial support to pay the travel costs of taking up a term of study in the U.S. will receive that support.

Second, I am proposing cooperation on enterprise, so that young business leaders in each country regularly conduct exchanges and learn from each other. "Make Your Mark" – which champions entrepreneurship among young people in Britain – is linking up with the Kauffman Foundation in the U.S. to organize this November the first Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Third, I am proposing that – in the spirit of Andrew Carnegie – British and U.S. charities come together to discuss projects where working in common we can make a difference. The Hunter Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York have agreed to host a convention of U.S. and U.K. philanthropic charitable organizations, with participants including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And regulators on both sides of the Atlantic will discuss how rules governing donations to charities can help U.K. and U.S. charities work more closely together – in particular to make it clear how to register a charity here in Britain and qualify for tax benefits.

Fourth, building on well-established traditions of U.K.-U.S. collaboration – from Crick and Watson to the Human Genome Project – I am proposing that we strengthen even further our cooperation in health research. The Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research U.K. are working with the U.S. and other international partners to compile a comprehensive catalog of cancer mutations, in order to give us an even better chance of fighting this often-deadly disease. And as part of the planning for Europe's largest medical research center at St. Pancras, London, Prof. Sir Paul Nurse will bring together experts from America and Britain to increase our understanding of cancer, and improve treatment and rates of cure.

Fifth, by working together our two countries could make a huge difference in dealing with the impact of climate change. Britain's new Energy Technologies Institute – set up to do path-breaking, low-carbon research and development – is ready to link up with U.S. environmental research efforts.

Sixth, in an Internet age young people can, of course, talk to each other across continents. I want them to be able to meet each other, too.

Last month, the British Council launched the Transatlantic 2020 initiative to bring together young leaders from America, the U.K. and Europe. And Britain's "V" organization – which harnesses the energies of young people in community service – will build on their links with similar programs in America to explore ways in which our young people can volunteer in each other's countries.

Each of these initiatives offers a modern means of expressing our special relationship in the 21st century – bringing people together, increasing understanding, and realizing the potential for the greater good when our two nations work together. And they reflect today's more connected society, in which thousands of people who communicate across multimedia channels will now be able to visit, meet face to face, and gain knowledge and understanding that will benefit them, and both our countries.

In the last half-century the English language has become not only the language of Shakespeare and Twain, of J.K. Rowling and Cormac McCarthy, but of science, commerce, diplomacy, the Internet and travel.

So, finally, I propose that together Britain and America strive to make the international language that happens to be our own far more freely available across the world. I am today asking the British Council to develop a new initiative with private-sector and NGO partners in America, to offer anyone in any part of the world help to learn English.

America and Britain are separated by the thousands of miles of the Atlantic, and by our differing and always evolving national cultures. Yet there is still far more that unites us than can ever divide us. I believe that the future of our relationship can, if we choose, deliver far more even than it has achieved in its past. Not just for both our nations, but for the world.
 

Mr. Brown is Britain's prime minister.

Enlarging the Anglosphere, WSJ, 16.4.2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120830718371518015.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today

2.30pm BST update

We are making

every effort to help people,

says Brown

Monday April 14 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Andrew Sparrow and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Monday April 14 2008.
It was last updated
at 14:38 on April 14 2008.

Gordon Brown insisted today that he was doing everything in his power to maintain economic stability, as a poll showed Britons do not trust their government to handle the downturn as much as the citizens of other major western countries.

The prime minister also brushed aside criticism of his leadership, saying that he understood people's concerns about their future and that he was making "every effort" to help people cope with the consequences of the economic slowdown.

Brown spoke out as George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, delivered a speech largely devoted to attacking Brown's reputation for economic competence.

More worryingly for the prime minister, Osborne was able to exploit evidence that a growing number of Labour MPs are unhappy about Brown's leadership. With one poll at the weekend putting the Conservatives 16 points ahead, some Labour MPs think their party will not be able to recover and that Brown is to blame.

Brown, who was attending a campaign event with Ken Livingstone, told reporters that the government was "aware of the insecurities that people have felt" as a result of the global downturn.

"All my efforts are to make sure that we can help homeowners trying to buy homes, to help those people with mortgages who need the support of government at this time, to help businesses get the funding for investment and to help people get new jobs or maintain the jobs that they have," Brown said.

Brown stressed that international factors were to blame for the downturn.

"But we in Britain are going to continue to do everything in our power to keep the economy moving forward and to listen to the concerns and aspirations of people," he said.

Brown spoke as a poll in the Financial Times showed that Britons have significantly less faith in their government's ability to deal with the economic downturn than people living in other western states.

Asked how confident they were in their government's ability to deal with the recent economic difficulties, 68% of British respondents said they were "not confident at all".

The equivalent figure was 52% in Germany, 51% in the US, 50% in France, 43% in Italy and 36% in Spain.

In a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank, Osborne said: "Gordon Brown has been found out. His economic reputation is in tatters."

Osborne said that Brown had build his reputation for competence on three pillars – stability, prudence and competitiveness – but that in each area he had been found wanting.

On stability, Osborne gave Brown credit for keeping inflation low. But he said that Brown had failed to deal with the problem of rising consumer debt.

Osborne said prudence was admirable but that Brown had failed to apply it. "Even with the highest tax burden in our peacetime history, the pursuit of prudence somehow left us with the largest budget deficit in the developed world," he said.

And, on productivity, Osborne said productivity had improved at a slower rate since 1997 than in the 11 years before 1997.
"After a decade of worldwide growth, we have ended up with housing boom followed by bust, spending followed by debt, and a country finding it more and more difficult to compete," he said.

There is increasing unease within Labour circles about the performance of the government. A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times yesterday showed the Tories 16 points ahead of Labour, their biggest lead since 1992.

Although it is acknowledged that the state of the economy is partly to blame, Labour MPs are also unhappy about some of Brown's own decisions, such as the scrapping of the 10p starting rate of tax and the proposal to allow pre-charge detention of terror suspects for up to 42 days.

In private many Labour MPs are very critical about Brown's leadership. They are mostly not speaking out in public, although it is thought this could change if Labour does badly in the local or mayoral elections.

Brown was this morning defended by his cabinet colleague Hazel Blears.

Although there have been many reports recently about tensions within the government, Blears told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that cooperation within government has improved since Brown became prime minister last year.

"It is obviously difficult times for the government," she said. "It is also difficult times for the country.

"It is entirely understandable that people are concerned about their own finances, they are certainly concerned about homes, utility bills, cost of living. That is the reality of it.

"But actually the test for any government is when you are in difficult times, how do you perform - do you stand firm?"

"I think most people do accept that the credit crunch we are going through is an international issue, but it is impacting on them and as a government we have got to show that we do understand that and we are taking measures to help them."

    We are making every effort to help people, says Brown, G, 14.4.2008,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/14/gordonbrown.labour

3.50pm BST update

PM dismisses fears of a property crash

Tuesday April 8 2008
Andrew Sparrow, Jim Griffin and agencies
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Tuesday April 08 2008.
It was last updated
at 16:08 on April 08 2008.

Gordon Brown today dismissed fears of a crash in the housing market, as figures showed the biggest monthly fall in house prices since the early 1990s.

The prime minister insisted that the drop in prices was "containable" and that the underlying state of the economy was sound.

But the Liberal Democrats warned there would be "an epidemic of repossessions" unless lenders took steps to ease the burden on homeowners having difficulty meeting their mortgage repayments.

Brown was speaking in response to the publication of figures from Halifax showing house prices falling by 2.5% in March.

The lender said the drop was the largest since 1992, and followed a decrease of 0.3% in February. As a result, prices are down 1% in the first quarter of the year, to leave the average UK property costing £191,556.

The fall in house prices follows the tightening of credit in recent weeks, as numerous lenders have adjusted their mortgage offers in response to the international credit crunch.

In an interview with the BBC, the prime minister insisted that today's figures should be seen in the context of rising prices over the last decade.

"We've seen house prices rise by about 180% over the last 10 years and they have risen by about 18% over the last three years, so a 2.5% fall is something that is containable," Brown said.

He added that the number of homes being repossessed was a "fraction" of the number being repossessed in the early 1990s, but insisted that the government was "always vigilant".

Ministers would be meeting with the Council of Mortgage Lenders to discuss what steps could be taken to help homeowners and homebuyers, he said.

"If you look back 15 years, we had 15% interest rates, 10% inflation, rapidly rising unemployment, public spending having to be cut, taxes having to rise dramatically," Brown said.

"If you look at this situation, because we've got low inflation we can cut interest rates, because we've had low debt we can afford to keep our public spending programme in line and to borrow at the right time to help the economy come through difficult times."

That was why growth in Britain was expected to be higher than in other countries, Brown said.

Heading for a fall

Vincent Cable, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, said today's figures showed the housing market was overvalued. "We are only at the early stages of a market fall," he said.

"The government is only just waking up to the problem, despite the fact it has been warned for years that there were great economic dangers from the bubble in the housing market, linked to exceptionally high levels of personal borrowing."

He said homeowners whose fixed-term mortgages were coming up for renewal were struggling to cope with the new terms of their mortgages, and that many of them would not be able to afford to pay.

"There will be an epidemic of repossessions unless the government forces mortgage lenders to moderate the process by offering shared ownership and payment holidays to keep people in their homes," he added.

Speaking for the Conservatives, shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "Today is the day that millions of homeowners are confronted with the consequences of Gordon Brown's economic incompetence.

"This week, instead of being able to help people, Labour are putting up taxes on millions, including the lowest paid in Britain.

"Gordon Brown failed to prepare - he borrowed in a boom and allowed the debt bubble to grow. Now the whole country is paying the price."

Slowest growth rate since 1992

Today's figures from the Halifax mean in the three months to March the annual rate of house price inflation fell back to just 1.1% - the slowest rate of growth in 12 years - from 4.2% in February and a peak of 11.4% last August.

Martin Ellis, chief economist at the Halifax, said: "We expect there to be a modest fall in UK house prices this year.

"Any declines, however, should be viewed in the context of the significant price rises over recent years. The average price has risen by £120,860 during the past decade from £70,696 to £191,556 - an increase of 171%."

He added that strong economic fundamentals were supporting house prices and a strong labour market was the key driver of the housing market.

The data follows figures from Nationwide which showed that prices fell by 0.6% month-on-month in March - a fifth successive decline.

This is a marked change since before Christmas when the society's three-month figures were still showing price rises.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, said: "It is important not to put too much emphasis on one piece of data, and it should also be borne in mind that house prices are still only down 1.0% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2008.

"Nevertheless, the overall impression is that house prices are buckling markedly under the substantial pressure emanating from increased affordability constraints and markedly tighter lending conditions."

As a result of the latest figures Archer now expects house prices to fall by 7% in 2008 and 8% in 2009.

"We had previously forecast prices to fall by 5% in both years, but the recent escalation of the credit crunch means that there is a markedly increased danger that a sharp housing market correction could occur.

"Current rapidly deteriorating sentiment over the housing market also heightens the risk that house prices could fall more sharply over the next couple of years.

"Indeed, there is now a very real danger that a drop of more than 20% in house prices could occur over the next couple of years."

Despite falling prices and recent cuts to the Bank of England base rate, affordability pressures on borrowers are increasing as the credit crunch forces lenders to reprice mortgages and adjust lending criteria.

In recent weeks, numerous lenders have readjusted their mortgage offers as it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain credit.

Alliance & Leicester and Cheltenham & Gloucester both capped their maximum loans at 90%, while Halifax reduced its maximum loan to 95%.

Today, Abbey became the last lender to withdraw its 100% mortgage, meaning borrowers will have to put down a deposit of at least 5% to obtain a deal.

    PM dismisses fears of a property crash, G, 8.4.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/apr/08/houseprices.property

4pm GMT update

Nationalisation in taxpayers' best interests,

PM says

Monday February 18 2008
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Monday February 18 2008.
It was last updated
at 16:12 on February 18 2008.

Prime minister Gordon Brown today defended the government's controversial decision to nationalise Northern Rock amid growing anger from shareholders in the bank, who are expected to receive little or no compensation.

Speaking to reporters at his monthly Downing Street news conference, and flanked by chancellor Alistair Darling, Brown insisted that nationalisation was in the best interests of taxpayers.

"We will and always have put the interests of taxpayers first," he said.

Brown defended the record of his successor at the Treasury, who has come under increasing fire over his handling of the Northern Rock crisis and a series of other controversies.

"We are dealing with a global financial situation; I believe we have been better prepared because of the actions of Alistair Darling in the Treasury than in other countries," Brown said.

This afternoon the chancellor put forward the emergency legislation in parliament. In his commons statement at 3.30pm, Darling said the draft bill would begin its passage through parliament tomorrow and would only be used to nationalise Northern Rock even though the legislation could be interpreted more widely than that.

Darling reiterated that the bank would continue to "operate as a bank on a commercial basis" at "arm's length" from government. He said more details would be published shortly of how the relationship between the government and the bank would function.

Unions were meeting today with Northern Rock's new executive chairman Ron Sandler, to discuss potential job losses among the 6,000 or so staff. At a lunchtime press conference in Newcastle Sandler said his priorities were to return the bank to the private sector "as a vibrant, thriving enterprise, and, of course, repaying the taxpayer".

Repayment of the loans was a "feasible prospect," he said, but it would be "some years" before the bank would be able to clear the loans.

He refused to indicate what would happen to the workforce, saying it was his "first day at the bank".

Sandler, who is being paid £90,000 a month to head Northern Rock, made it clear that the bank would "compete vigorously" for business. This is likely to alarm rival mortgage lenders, who are concerned that a state-owned business might have an unfair competitive advantage.

Darling said earlier that he was "very aware of the banks' concerns and I want to be fair by them." But, he added: "I think they also recognise that we have got to have a situation where Northern Rock can continue to trade."

Shares in the stricken mortgage lender were suspended from stock market dealings earlier today. They closed on Friday at 90p, valuing the Newcastle-based company at around £380m. A year ago it was worth more than £5bn.

In a statement to the stock exchange, the board of Northern Rock made its first comments on the move, which is the first nationalisation of a British company since the 1970s.

The board, led by chairman Bryan Sanderson, said it was "disappointed" by the government's decision.

It also made it clear that the new management team, led by executive chairman Ron Sandler, would be expected to run the bank with "commercial autonomy" and "at arm's length from the government".

Northern Rock said: "It has been important to have had the time to ensure there were a number of private sector solutions available. The Board hoped that at least one of those options would succeed and is very disappointed that the Government concluded that it was unable to provide funding to support a private sector solution and, in particular, the proposal put forward by the company, which the Board believed satisfied the interests of all stakeholders".

Shareholders had been willing to back a scheme outlined by the Northern Rock board which would have involved the bank being run by former corporate financier Paul Thompson.

But they are now thought to be considering a legal challenge against the government. Jon Wood, head of the Monaco-based hedge fund, SRM Global, said it was "a very sad day for the stock market, banking industry and the reputation of the UK as a financial centre".

SRM is Northern Rock's largest shareholder, with a stake of over 10%. "The only thing missing from the podium yesterday was Arthur Scargill. It was just appalling," Wood told City AM newspaper, adding that Northern Rock shares were worth at least 425p.

Shares in another hedge fund, RAB, which has just over 8% in the bank, plunged this morning, tumbling 9% to 63p.

Darling, who has his own mortgage with Northern Rock, made it clear earlier today that the government is still open to offers for the bank. "If people have proposals, of course we will listen to them," he told the BBC, although he cautioned that the current state of the financial markets meant it was "not an ideal time" for a deal.

He again stressed that the nationalisation was a temporary move - "the government can't run a bank; governments don't do that" - but said that the timing of a return to private ownership would depend on market conditions.

Nationalisation in taxpayers' best interests, PM says, G, 18.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/18/northernrock

Brown:

my vision for 'dangerous' year ahead

· PM tells Observer of fightback plan
· Battle to win hearts of Muslims
· He pledges to make 'hard choices'

Sunday January 6, 2008
The Observer
Nicholas Watt, political editor


Gordon Brown today issues a powerful declaration that 2008 will decide the fate of his premiership as he pledges to push through a series of controversial decisions that will shape Britain for decades to come.

In his first major interview of the year, the Prime Minister serves notice on his opponents that he is planning a fightback which will see him taking unpopular decisions on nuclear power, airport expansion and house building.

Brown delivers a strong warning that voters will face tough economic conditions this year as the US credit crunch spreads across the Atlantic. 'This is a difficult and dangerous situation for the world economy,' he says.

The Prime Minister tells The Observer of his plans for the new year in an interview following a rare holiday at his Fife home with his young family over Christmas. He stops short of mentioning a political relaunch, but indicates that he spent much of the holiday mulling over the future of his government after a series of setbacks towards the end of 2007. These included the loss of the personal details of half the population by Revenue & Customs, a Labour party funding row involving the millionaire property developer David Abrahams, who made donations through proxies, and the first run on a British bank in more than a century. Brown makes clear that he aims to rekindle the spirit of his first few months in office, when he won praise for his decisive responses to attempted terror attacks and flooding.

'The only way Britain can be great in the future is by people who are prepared through thick and thin, and through bad times and good times, to take what are difficult long-term decisions, even if at times it may be easier to do simpler or less difficult things,' he says.

The controversial decisions highlighted by Brown include:

· a strong indication that the government will give the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power stations, possibly as early as Tuesday when John Hutton, the Business Secretary, addresses MPs;

· a warning that conservationists can expect a battle as Brown ploughs on with planning changes to meet his target of building three million houses;

· a declaration that major infrastructure projects will be given the green light despite environmental objections.

'We have legislation coming through on Crossrail [a new railway link for London], on Heathrow, on big infrastructure decisions which if the country doesn't make now then we will either be congested or be unable to cope with some of the problems in the years to come,' he says. Brown contrasts his appetite for big decisions with that of his political opponents, whom he accuses of opportunism. 'What's really fascinating is that the opposition parties are against almost all these big long-term decisions,' he says. 'And I think it's opportunist. And I think it's not putting the long-term interests of the country before the short-term political gain to parties.'

The Prime Minister's uncompromising language on the 'tough, long-term decisions' contrasts with a remarkably conciliatory tone on a series of touchstone civil liberty issues which have caused him grief over the past year. Brown says that nobody should fear ID cards because they will not be compulsory for British citizens, and he indicates that he is determined to find a compromise on the government's plan to extend to 42 days the period a terrorism suspect can be held without charge.

Brown, who says he is determined that the battle against terrorism should involve a campaign to win the 'hearts and minds' of Muslims, even indicates that he can understand why young people are attracted to Islamism.

Asked about Ed Husain, the young Muslim who wrote a book about how he supported and then abandoned the hardline Hizb ut Tahrir organisation, Brown says: 'When you read Ed Husain there was a ferment of activity around colleges and around certain mosques and institutions. And it's hardly surprising that lots of young people are drawn into that, not just because of the excitement, because of the pressures that are upon them.'

The Prime Minister adds that more needs to be done to persuade Islamists that their image of Britain is distorted: 'We ought to be ... part of that debate. And the more we can have these roadshows that are encouraging the debate and discussion, the better.'

His comments come as a leading bishop claims that Christians are too scared to enter parts of Britain because they have been turned into 'no-go areas' by Islamic extremists. The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, argues in a newspaper article that people of different faiths find it difficult to work or live in such areas because of 'hostility' towards them.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he highlighted 'attempts to impose an Islamic character on certain areas, for example by insisting on artificial amplification for the Adhan, the call to prayer.'

The Bishop said there was also pressure from some to impose Sharia law and described the trend as the 'other side of the coin to far-Right intimidation'. A multicultural society, he said, was making it less possible for Christianity to be the public faith in Britain. He added that the integration agenda pursued by the government 'lacks ... a moral and spiritual vision'.

Leading Muslim figures last night accused the bishop of scare-mongering.

It emerged yesterday that Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, is to tell local authorities to use part of a £70 million government fund set up to combat extremism to pay for courses in confidence-building for Muslim women.

    Brown: my vision for 'dangerous' year ahead, O, 6.1.2008, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2236017,00.html