Gordon Brown/Timelines

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A timeline (or several) relating to Gordon Brown.

Parliamentary Career

Opposition 1983-97

  • 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

  • 1987 Brown appointed Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
  • 1989 Appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

1992 General election: Conservative 42% 336 seats; Labour 34% 271 seats; Liberal Democrats 18% 20seats

Brown 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

1997 General election: Labour 43% 418 seats; Conservative 31% 165 seats; Liberal Democrats 17% 46seats

Chancellor of the Exchequer 1997-2007

  • Bank of England Act 1998[2], gave the Bank responsibility for setting interest rates to meet the Government's stated inflation target.
  • Five tests for Euro membership
  • Code for Fiscal Stability
  • Pre-budget reports
  • Budget 1997[3]
  • Budget 1998[4]
  • Budget 1999[5]
  • Budget 2000[6]
  • Financial Services and Markets Act 2000[7] Establishes the Financial Services Authority to combine the functions of 6 regulatory bodies
  • Budget 2001[8]

2001 General election: Labour 40% 413 seats; Conservative 32% 166 seats; Liberal Democrats 18% 52seats

  • Budget 2002[9]
  • Enterprise Act 2002[10] gives political independence and additional investigatory and punitive powers to the competition authorities
  • Budget 2003[11]
  • Budget 2004[12]
  • Budget 2005[13]
Better Regulation Commission[14]

2005 General election: Labour 35% 356 seats; Conservative 32% 198 seats; Liberal Democrats 22% 62 seats

=

Prime Minister 2007-2010

  • June 2007 Tony Blair retires, Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister and Alastair Darling becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer.
  • November 2007 credit crunch begins as UK banking system suffers losses as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis[17]
  • February 2008 The Northern Rock bank is "nationalised [18].
  • April 2008 * Bank of England announces its Special Liquidity Scheme to allow banks to swap some of their illiquid assets for liquid Treasury Bills for up to three years [19].
  • September 2008 collapse of the United States Lehman Brothers investment bank triggers the culmination of the financial crash of 2008
  • October 2008 £500 billion bank rescue plan [1] [2] including powers to take equity stakes in ailing banks and an unlimited undertaking to guarantee bank loans.
  • October 2008 visits to Paris and Washington: Britain's bank rescue plan adopted in the EU and the USA[3]
  • November 2008 The head of the IMF asks for a coordinated fiscal stimulus of 2 per cent of GDP[20]
  • November 2008 Chancellor Darling announces a £20 billion fiscal stimulus including a temporary reduction in value added tax (amounting to about 1 per cent of GDP); and suspends the code for fiscal stability.
  • January 2009 The Chancellor authorises the Bank of England to set up an Asset Purchase Facility to buy high-quality assets for the purpose of quantitative easing operations [21].
  • February 2010 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 Conservative 36% 306 seats; Liberal Democrats 23% 57 seats, Labour 29% 258 seats.

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 Higher School Certificate (A-level equivalent) 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