The Land of Cockaigne (1567), a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the 16th century.]]

A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally owns or rents only a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district (when the Roman Empire became Christian, these outlying districts were the last to Christianise, and this gave rise to "pagan" as a religious term). The term peasant today is sometimes used in a pejorative sense for impoverished farmers.

Peasants typically make up the majority of the agricultural labour force in a Pre-industrial society, dependent on the cultivation of their land: without stockpiles of provisions they thrive or starve according to the most recent harvest. The majority of the people in the Middle Ages were peasants. Pre-industrial societies have diminished with the advent of globalization and as such there are considerably fewer peasants to be found in rural areas throughout the world (as a proportion of the total world population).

Though "peasant" is a word of loose application, once a market economy has taken root the term peasant proprietors is frequently used to describe the traditional rural population in countries where the land is chiefly held by smallholders. It is sometimes used by people who consider themselves of higher class as slang to refer pejoratively to those of poorer education who come from a lower income background.

In many pre-industrial societies, peasants comprised the bulk of the population. Peasant societies often had well developed social support networks. Especially in harder climates, members of the community who had a poor harvest or suffered other hardships were taken care of by the rest of the community. Peasants usually only had one set of clothing, two at most. Also, a peasant usually owed their lord 20% of their earnings. They also owed the priest or bishop 10% of their ownings. Of course, knights could, and would usually demand tributes for keeping them alive. Overall, the peasant usually retained only 10-20% of their total work and earnings.

Peasant societies can often have very stratified social hierarchies within them. Rural people often have very different values and economic behavior from urbanites, and tend to be more conservative. Peasants are often very loyal to inherited power structures that define their rights and privileges and protect them from interlopers, despite their low status within those power structures.

Fernand Braudel devoted the first volume–called The Structures of Everyday Life–of his major work, Civilization and Capitalism 15th–18th Century to the largely silent and invisible world that existed below the market economy.

Since it was the literate classes who left the most records, and these tended to dismiss peasants as figures of coarse appetite and rustic comedy, the term "peasant" may have a pejorative rather than descriptive connotation in historical memory. Society was theorized as being organized into three "estates": those who work, those who pray, and those who fight.

Medieval European peasants

The relative position of peasants in Western Europe improved greatly after the Black Death unsettled the demography of medieval Europe.

In the wake of this disruption to the established order, later centuries saw the invention of the printing press, the development of widespread literacy and the enormous social and intellectual changes of the Enlightenment.

This evolution of ideas in an environment of relatively widespread literacy laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution, which enabled mechanically- and chemically-augmented agricultural production while simultaneously increasing the demand for factory workers in cities. Urban factory-workers, with their low skill and large numbers, quickly came to occupy the socio-economic stratum formerly the preserve of the medieval peasants.

This process happened in an especially pronounced and truncated way in Eastern Europe. Lacking any catalysts for change in the 14th century, Eastern European peasants largely continued upon the original medieval path until the 18th and 19th centuries. The Tsars then began to notice that though the West had made enormous strides, they had not; they responded by forcing the largely illiterate peasant populations under their control to embark upon a course of Westernization and industrialization.

Peasant Studies

The field of peasant studies as such originated in the early work of scholars such as Florian Znaniecki and Fei Xiaotong, and in the post-1945 studies of the "great tradition" and the "little tradition" in the work of Robert Redfield. In the 1960s, anthropologists and historians began to rethink the role of peasant revolt in world history and in their own disciplines. This rethinking responded in part to American involvement in the Vietnam War of 1955-1975, which critics on the political left regarded as an attempt to repress a peasant revolution. Peasant revolution was seen as a Third World response to capitalism and imperialism.

The anthropologist Eric Wolf, for instance, drew on the work of earlier scholars in the Marxist tradition such as Daniel Thorner, who saw the rural population as a key element in the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Wolf and a group of scholars criticized both Marx and the field of modernization theorists for treating peasants as lacking the ability to take action. James C. Scott's field observations in Malaysia convinced him that villagers were active participants in their local politics even though they were forced to use indirect methods. Many of these activist scholars looked back to the Peasant Movement in India and to the theories of the revolution in China led by Mao Zedong starting in the 1920s. The anthropologist Myron Cohen, however, asked why the rural population in China were called "peasants" rather than "farmers", a distinction he called political rather than scientific. One important outlet for their scholarly work and theory was the Journal of Peasant Studies.

See also

(c. 1635), at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich]]

Family economy

Feudalism

Petty nobility

Folk culture

Lower class

Peasant Party (political movements in various countries)

Peasant revolt

Popular revolt in late medieval Europe

Serfdom

Slavery

Other terms for "peasant"

Aloer

Campesino

Chiabur

Churl

Cotter

, by Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1567 or 1568]]

Fellah

Free tenant

Hari

Honbyakushō

Kotsias

Kulak

Muzhik

Nóngmín

Pagesos de remença

Peasant farmer

Peon

Serf

Villein

Smerd

Ṭǎran

Tenant farmer

Vecin

Notes and references

E. J. Hobsbawm, Peasants and politics, Journal of Peasant Studies, Volume 1, Issue 1 October 1973 , pages 3 – 22 - article discusses the definition of "peasant" as used in social sciences

Category:Early Middle Ages Category:High Middle Ages Category:Farming history Category:Feudalism Category:Industrial Revolution Category:Social history Category:Rural economics

Name	Richard Burton
Caption	Burton in the 1963 film Cleopatra
Birth name	Richard Walter Jenkins
Birth date	November 10, 1925
Birth place	Pontrhydyfen, Wales
Death date	August 05, 1984
Death place	Céligny, Switzerland
Occupation	Actor
Nationality	Welsh
Years active	1944–1984
Spouse	Sybil Williams (1949–1963)Elizabeth Taylor (1964–1974, 1975–1976)Suzy Hunt (1976–1982)Sally Hay (1983–1984)
Children	Kate Burton, born on September 10, 1957Jessica Burton (b.1961)Maria Burton (Mike Todd's daughter,adopted by Burton), born on August 01, 1961
Website	http://www.richardburton.com

Richard Burton, CBE (10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role (without ever winning), and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Burton was at one time the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. He remains closely associated in the public consciousness with his second wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor; the couple's turbulent relationship was rarely out of the news.

Childhood and education

Richard Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in the village of Pontrhydyfen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales. He grew up in a working class, Welsh-speaking household, the twelfth of thirteen children. His father, Richard Walter Jenkins, was a short, robust coal miner, a "twelve-pints a-day man" who sometimes went off on drinking and gambling sprees for weeks. Burton later claimed, by family telling, that "He looked very much like me...That is, he was pockmarked, devious, and smiled a great deal when he was in trouble. He was, also, a man of extraordinary eloquence, tremendous passion, great violence."

Burton was less than two years old in 1927 when his mother, Edith Maude (née Thomas), died at the age of 43 after giving birth to her 13th child. His sister Cecilia and her husband Elfed took him into their Presbyterian mining family in nearby Port Talbot (an English-speaking steel town). Burton said later that his sister became "more mother to me than any mother could have ever been... I was immensely proud of her... she felt all tragedies except her own". Burton's father would make occasional appearances at the homes of his grown daughters but was otherwise absent. Also important in young Richard's life was Ifor (Ivor), the brother 19 years his senior. A miner and rugby player, Ifor "ruled the household with the proverbial firm hand".), cricket, and table tennis He later said, "I would rather have played for Wales at Cardiff Arms Park than Hamlet at the Old Vic." Burton early on displayed an excellent speaking and singing voice and won an Eisteddfod prize as a boy soprano. He was replaced by his friend Richard Harris. The final stage performance in which he starred was a critically reviled production of Noël Coward's Private Lives, opposite his ex-wife Elizabeth Taylor, in 1983. Most reviewers dismissed the production as a transparent attempt to capitalize on the couple's celebrity, although they grudgingly praised Burton as having the closest connection to Coward's play of anyone in the cast.

Hollywood career in the 1950s and 1960s

In terms of critical success, Burton's Hollywood roles throughout the 1950s did not live up to the early promise of his debut. Burton returned to Hollywood to star in The Prince of Players, another historical Cinemascope film, this time concerning Edwin Booth, famous American actor and brother of Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. A weak script undermined a valiant effort by Burton, although the view of director, Philip Dunne, was that "The fire and intensity were there, but that was all. He hadn't yet mastered the tricks of the great movie stars, such as Gary Cooper."

Later career

Burton's career went into decline after that, according to many critics who accused him of accepting roles in inferior projects to collect a quick pay cheque. He starred in the Yugoslav partisan film The Battle of Sutjeska (1973) only because he greatly admired the Communist leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito. Films he made during this period included Bluebeard (1972), Hammersmith Is Out (1972), The Klansman (1974), and (1977). He did enjoy one major critical success in the 1970s in the film version of his stage hit Equus, winning the Golden Globe Award as well as an Academy Award nomination. Public sentiment towards his perennial frustration at not winning an Oscar made many pundits consider him the favourite to finally win the award, but on Oscar Night he lost to Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl.

Although sometimes overlooked, it should be noted that Burton won in 1976 the 18th Grammy Awards in the category of Best Recording for Children for his narration of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

He found success in 1978, when he narrated Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. His distinctive performance became a necessary part of the concept album – so much so that a hologram of Burton is used to narrate the live stage show (touring in 2006, 2007 and 2009) of the musical.

Burton had an international box office hit with The Wild Geese (1978), an adventure tale about mercenaries in Africa. The film was a success in the UK and Europe but had only limited distribution in the U.S. owing to the collapse of the studio that funded it and the lack of an American star in the movie.

He went back to appearing in critically reviled films like The Medusa Touch (1978), Circle of Two (1980), and Wagner (1983), a role he said he was born to play, after his success in Equus. His last film performance, as O'Brien in Nineteen Eighty-Four, was critically acclaimed.

At the time of his death, Burton was preparing to film Wild Geese II, the sequel to The Wild Geese, which was eventually released in 1985. Burton was to reprise the role of Colonel Faulkner, while his friend Sir Laurence Olivier was cast as Rudolf Hess. After his death, Burton was replaced by Edward Fox, and the character changed to Faulkner's younger brother.

Oscars

He was nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Actor and once for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – but he never won. From 1982, he and Becket co-star Peter O'Toole shared the record for the male actor with the most nominations (7) for a competitive acting Oscar without ever winning. In 2007, O'Toole was unsuccessfully nominated for an eighth time, for Venus (however, O'Toole also received an "honorary" Academy Award in 2003). Both Burton and O'Toole were nominated for the film Becket.

Television

Burton rarely appeared on television, although he gave a memorable performance as Caliban in a televised production of The Tempest for The Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1960. Later appearances included the TV movie Divorce His – Divorce Hers (1973) opposite then-wife Elizabeth Taylor (a prophetic title, since their first marriage would be dissolved less than a year later), a remake of the classic film Brief Encounter (1974) that was considered vastly inferior to the 1945 original, and a critically applauded performance as Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm (1974). A critically panned film he made about the life of Richard Wagner (noted only for having the only onscreen teaming of Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in the same scene) was shown as a television miniseries in 1983 after failing to achieve a theatrical release in most countries, but Burton enjoyed a personal triumph in the American television miniseries Ellis Island in 1984, receiving a posthumous Emmy Award nomination for his final television performance.

Television played an important part in the fate of his Broadway appearance in Camelot. When the show's run was threatened by disappointing reviews, Burton and co-star Julie Andrews appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show to perform the number What Do The Simple Folk Do?. The television appearance renewed public interest in the production and extended its Broadway run.

Late in his career, he played himself in an episode of the Television Show The Fall Guy, repeating a stunt he made in 1970 when he and then-wife Elizabeth Taylor appeared as themselves on an episode of Here's Lucy as part of his unsuccessful campaign to win the Oscar for his nominated performance in Anne of the Thousand Days.

In 1997, archive footage of Burton was used in the first episode of the television series Conan.

Book

In 1964, Burton wrote a semi-autobiographical book A Christmas Story, which is an endearing tale of a Christmas Eve in a Welsh mining village, during the Depression.

Personal life

Burton was married five times, first to Sybil Williams from 1949 to 1963, with whom he had two children, actress Kate Burton and Jessica Burton. He was married twice, consecutively, to Elizabeth Taylor (15 March 1964 – 26 June 1974 and 10 October 1975 – 29 July 1976). The first marriage took place in Montreal. Their second marriage occurred sixteen months after their divorce, in the Chobe National Park, Botswana. In 1964, the couple adopted a 3-year-old German girl they named Maria. The relationship between them portrayed in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was popularly likened to Burton and Taylor's real-life marriage.

In 1968 Burton's elder brother, Ifor, slipped and fell, breaking his neck, after a lengthy drinking session with Burton at the actor's second home in Céligny, Switzerland. The injury left him paralyzed from the neck down. His younger brother Graham Jenkins opined it may have been guilt over this that caused Burton to start drinking very heavily, particularly after Ifor died in 1973.

In a February 1975 interview with his friend David Lewin he admitted having "tried" homosexuality. He also suggested that perhaps all actors were latent homosexuals, and "we cover it up with drink". In 2000, Ellis Amburn's biography of Elizabeth Taylor suggested that Burton had an affair with Laurence Olivier and tried to seduce Eddie Fisher, although this was strongly denied by Burton's younger brother Graham Jenkins.

. He is buried a few paces away from Alistair MacLean's grave.]]

Burton was notorious for his unrestrained pursuit of women while filming. Joan Collins wrote that when she rejected his on-set advances, he embarked on a series of liaisons with other women including an elderly black maid who, according to Collins, was "almost toothless". Collins playfully told Burton that she believed he would sleep with a snake if he had the chance, to which Burton is alleged to have replied "only if it was wearing a skirt, darling".

He was an insomniac and a notoriously heavy drinker. However, on-going back pain (apparently caused by his excessive alcohol intake crystallizing on his spine) and a dependence upon pain medications have been suggested as the true cause of his misery. He was also a heavy smoker from the time he was just eight years old; and by his own admission in a 1977 interview, Burton was smoking 3–5 packs per day.

His father, also a heavy drinker, refused to acknowledge his son's talents, achievements and acclaim. Burton courted further controversy in 1976 when he wrote a controversial article about his late friend and fellow Welsh thespian Sir Stanley Baker, who had recently died from pneumonia at the age of 48. Burton's fourth marriage was to Suzy Hunt, former wife of Formula 1 Champion James Hunt (maiden name Suzy Millar, whose father was a judge in Kenya), and his fifth was to Sally Hay, a make-up artist who later became a successful novelist.

Health Issues

The biography of Burton by Melvyn Bragg provides a detailed description of the many health issues that plagued Burton throughout his life. In his youth Burton was a star athlete and well known for his athletic abilities and strength. By the age of 41 he had declined so far in health that his arms were by his own admission thin and weak. He suffered from bursitis, possibly aggravated by faulty treatment, arthritis, dermatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and kidneys, as well as displaying, by his mid-forties, signs of advanced senescence such as a pronounced limp. How much of this was due to his intake of alcohol is impossible to ascertain, according to Bragg, because of Burton's reluctance to be treated for alcohol addiction; however, in 1974, Burton spent six weeks in a clinic to recuperate from a period during which he had been drinking three bottles of vodka a day. He was also a regular smoker with intake of between three and five packs a day for most of his adult life. Health issues continued to plague him until his death of a stroke at the age of 58.

Death

Burton died from a brain haemorrhage in 1984 at his home in Céligny, Switzerland, and is buried there. He was 58. Although his death was sudden, his health had been declining for several years and he suffered from a constant and severe pain in the neck. He had been warned that his liver was enlarged as early as March 1970, and had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and kidneys in April 1981. Burton was buried in a red suit, a tribute to his Welsh roots, and with a copy of Dylan Thomas's poems.

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

;Nominations

1952 Best Supporting Actor, My Cousin Rachel (Anthony Quinn)

1953 Best Actor, The Robe (William Holden)

1964 Best Actor, Becket (Rex Harrison)

1965 Best Actor, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Lee Marvin)

1966 Best Actor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Paul Scofield)

1969 Best Actor, Anne of the Thousand Days (John Wayne)

1977 Best Actor, Equus (Richard Dreyfuss)

BAFTA Awards

1966 Best Actor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? / The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

;Nominations

1959 Best Actor, Look Back in Anger

1967 Best Actor, The Taming of the Shrew

Emmy Awards

;Nominations

1985 Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special, Ellis Island

Golden Globe Awards

1953 Most Promising Newcomer – Male, My Cousin Rachel

1978 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Equus

;Nominations

1960 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Look Back in Anger

1965 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Becket

1967 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1968 Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical/Comedy, The Taming of the Shrew

1970 Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Anne of the Thousand Days

Grammy Award Winner

1974 Best Children's Recording, The Little Prince

Tony Awards

1961 Best Actor – Musical, Camelot

1976 Special Award

;Nominations

1959 Best Actor – Play, Time Remembered

1964 Best Actor – Play, Hamlet

Filmography

Stage productions

Measure for Measure (1944)

Druid's Rest (1944)

Castle Anna (1948)

The Lady's Not for Burning (1949)

The Lady's Not for Burning (1950)

A Phoenix Too Frequent (1950)

The Boy With A Cart (1950)

Legend of Lovers (1951)

The Tempest (1951)

Henry V (1951)

Henry IV (1951)

Montserrat (1952)

The Tempest (1953)

King John (1953)

Hamlet (1953)

Coriolanus (1953)

Hamlet (1953)

Twelfth Night (1953)

Henry V (1955)

Othello (1956)

Sea Wife (1957)

Time Remembered (1957)

Camelot (1960)

Hamlet (1964)

A Poetry Reading (1964)

Doctor Faustus (1966)

Equus (1970)

Camelot (1980)

Private Lives (1983)

War of the Worlds (1978)

Further reading

Shipman, D. The Great Movie Stars: The International Years, Angus & Robertson 1982. ISBN 0-207-14803-1

References

External links

Official Richard Burton Website

Richard Burton's yacht Kalizma

Burton in the pub with his father and brother in Pontrhydyfen

Richard Burton on the Dick Cavett Show, July 1980

|- !colspan="3" style="background:#C1D8FF;"| Husband of Elizabeth Taylor

Category:1925 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Adoptees adopted by relations Category:Alcohol-related deaths in Switzerland Category:Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford Category:American Theatre Hall of Fame inductees Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best British Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:British expatriates in Switzerland Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage

Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Neath Port Talbot Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Tony Award winners Category:United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassadors Category:Welsh actors Category:Welsh film actors Category:Welsh-speaking people Category:Welsh stage actors

Honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
Name	Gordon Brown
Honorific-suffix	MP
Alt	Head and shoulders of a smiling man in a suit and striped tie with dark, greying hair and rounded face with square jaw
Caption	Gordon Brown in 2009
Office	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Term start	27 June 2007
Term end	11 May 2010
Predecessor	Tony Blair
Successor	David Cameron
Office2	Leader of the Labour Party
Term start2	24 June 2007
Term end2	11 May 2010
Deputy2	Harriet Harman
Predecessor2	Tony Blair
Successor2	Harriet Harman (acting)
Office3	Chancellor of the Exchequer
Primeminister3	Tony Blair
Term start3	2 May 1997
Term end3	27 June 2007
Predecessor3	Kenneth Clarke
Successor3	Alistair Darling
Office4	Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Leader4	John SmithTony Blair
Term start4	18 July 1992
Term end4	2 May 1997
Predecessor4	John Smith
Successor4	Kenneth Clarke
Office5	Shadow Secretary of State for Trade
Leader5	Neil Kinnock
Term start5	13 May 1985
Term end5	18 July 1992
Predecessor5	Robin Cook
Successor5	Margaret Beckett
Constituency mp6	Kirkcaldy and CowdenbeathDunfermline East (1983–2005)
Term start6	9 June 1983
Predecessor6	Willie Hamilton (Central Fife)Dick Douglas (Dunfermline)
Majority6	23,009 (50.2%)
Birth date	February 20, 1951
Birth place	Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Party	Labour
Spouse	Sarah Brown(m. 2000–present)
Children	Jennifer Jane (deceased)John MacaulayJames Fraser
Residence	North Queensferry (Private)
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Religion	Church of Scotland
Website	www.gordonbrown.org.uk

James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1983, currently for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. He served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party. Immediately before this, he had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007. His tenure ended in May 2010, when he resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party.

Brown has a PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983; first for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. As Prime Minister, he also held the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service.

Brown's time as Chancellor was marked by major reform of Britain's monetary and fiscal policy architecture, transferring interest rate setting powers to the Bank of England, by a wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to cover much domestic policy and by transferring responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority. Controversial moves included the abolition of advance corporation tax (ACT) relief in his first budget, and the removal in his final budget of the 10% "starting rate" of personal income tax which he had introduced in 1999.

After initial rises in opinion polls following Brown's selection as leader, Labour performed poorly in local and European election results 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. and as Leader of the Labour Party by Ed Miliband on 25 September 2010.

Early life and career before Parliament

Gordon 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. He died in December 1998, aged 84. His mother Jessie Elizabeth Souter, known as Bunty, died on 19 September 2004, aged 86. She was the daughter of John Souter, a timber merchant. Brown was brought up with his elder brother John and younger brother Andrew Brown In common with many other notable Scots, he is therefore often referred to as a "son of the manse".

Brown was educated first at Kirkcaldy West Primary School where he was selected for an experimental fast stream education programme, which took him two years early to Kirkcaldy High School for an academic hothouse education taught in separate classes. At age 16 he wrote that he loathed and resented this "ludicrous" experiment on young lives.

He was accepted by the University of Edinburgh to study history at the same early age of 16. During an end-of-term rugby union match at his old school he received a kick to the head and suffered a retinal detachment. This left him blind in his left eye, despite treatment including several operations and weeks spent lying in a darkened room. Later at Edinburgh, while playing tennis, he noticed the same symptoms in his right eye. Brown underwent experimental surgery at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and his eye was saved. Brown graduated from Edinburgh with First Class Honours MA in 1972, and stayed on to complete his PhD (which he gained ten years later in 1982), titled The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918–29. In 1972, while still a student, Brown was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh, the convener of the University Court. He served as Rector until 1975, and also edited the document The Red Paper on Scotland.

From 1976 to 1980 Brown was employed as a lecturer in Politics at Glasgow College of Technology. In the 1979 general election, he stood for the Edinburgh South constituency, losing to the Conservative candidate, Michael Ancram. He also worked as a tutor for the Open University.

Election to parliament and opposition

Gordon Brown was elected to Parliament on his second attempt as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983 general election. His first Westminster office mate was a newly elected MP from the Sedgefield constituency by the name of Tony Blair. Brown became opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry in 1985. In 1986, he published a biography of the Independent Labour Party politician James Maxton, the subject of his PhD thesis. Brown was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1987 to 1989 and then Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, before becoming Shadow Chancellor in 1992.

After the sudden death of Labour leader John Smith in May 1994, Brown did not contest the leadership after Tony Blair became favourite. It has long been rumoured a deal was struck between Blair and Brown at the former Granita restaurant in Islington, in which Blair promised to give Brown control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing against him in the leadership election. Whether this is true or not, the relationship between Blair and Brown has been central to the fortunes of "New Labour", and they have mostly remained united in public, despite reported serious private rifts.

As Shadow Chancellor, Brown as Chancellor-in-waiting was seen as a good choice by business and the middle class. While he was Chancellor inflation sometimes exceeded the 2% target causing the Governor of the Bank of England to write several letters to the Chancellor, each time inflation exceeded three per cent. In 2005 following a reorganisation of parliamentary constituencies in Scotland, Brown became MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath at the general election.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

/IMF meeting in 2002|alt=Gordon Brown standing at a podium. Text on the podium states "ANNUAL MEETINGS". A number of flags hang in the background]]

In the 1997 general election, Labour defeated the Conservatives by a landslide to end their 18-year exile from government on when Tony Blair, the new prime minister, announced his ministerial team on 2 May 1997, he appointed Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He would remain in this role for 10 years and two months, making him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history. At the same time he also changed the inflation measure from the Retail Price Index to the Consumer Price Index and transferred responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority. Some commentators have argued that this division of responsibilities exacerbated the severity, in Britain, of 2007 global banking crisis.

Taxation and spending

In the 1997 election and subsequently, Brown pledged to not increase the basic or higher rates of income tax. Over his Chancellorship, he reduced the basic rate from 23% to 20%. However, in all but his final budget, Brown increased the tax thresholds in line with inflation, rather than earnings, resulting in fiscal drag. Corporation tax fell under Brown, from a main rate of 33% to 28%, and from 24% to 19% for small businesses. In 1999, he introduced a lower tax band of 10%. He abolished this 10% tax band in his last budget in 2007 to reduce the basic rate from 22% to 20%, increasing tax for 5 million people and, according to the calculations of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, leaving those earning between £5,000 and £18,000 as the biggest losers. According to the OECD UK taxation has increased from a 39.3% share of gross domestic product in 1997 to 42.4% in 2006, going to a higher level than Germany. This increase has mainly been attributed to active government policy, and not simply to the growing economy. Conservatives have accused Brown of imposing "stealth taxes". A commonly reported example resulted in 1997 from a technical change in the way corporation tax is collected, the indirect effect of which was for the dividends on stock investments held within pensions to be taxed, thus lowering pension returns and contributing to the demise of most of the final salary pension funds in the UK. The Treasury contends that this tax change was crucial to long-term economic growth.

Brown's 2000 Spending Review outlined a major expansion of government spending, particularly on health and education. In his April 2002 budget, Brown increased national insurance to pay for health spending. He also introduced working tax credits.

European single currency

In October 1997, Brown took control of the United Kingdom's membership of the European single currency issue by announcing the Treasury would set five economic tests to ascertain whether the economic case had been made. In June 2003 the Treasury indicated the tests had not been passed.

Other issues

In 2000, Brown was accused of starting a political row about higher education (referred to as the Laura Spence Affair) when he accused the University of Oxford of elitism in its admissions procedures, describing its decision not to offer a place to state school pupil Laura Spence as "absolutely outrageous". Lord Jenkins, then Oxford Chancellor and himself a former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, said "nearly every fact he used was false."

Between 1999 and 2002 Brown sold 60% of the UK's gold reserves shortly before gold entered a protracted bull market, since nicknamed by dealers as Brown Bottom. The official reason for selling the gold reserves was to reduce the portfolio risk of the UK's reserves by diversifying away from gold. Since then, the decision to sell the gold has been criticised.

During his time as Chancellor, Brown was reported to believe that it is appropriate to remove much of the unpayable Third World debt, but does not think that all debt should be erased. On 20 April 2006, in a speech to the United Nations Ambassadors, Brown outlined a "Green" view of global development.

Run-up to succeeding Tony Blair

:''Main articles Labour Party leadership election, 2007 and Timeline for the Labour Party leadership elections, 2007

In October 2004, Tony Blair announced he would not lead the party into a fourth general election, but would serve a full third term. Political comment over the relationship between Brown and Blair continued up to and beyond the 2005 election, which Labour won with a reduced parliamentary majority and reduced vote share. Blair announced on 7 September 2006 that he would step down within a year. Brown was the clear favourite to succeed Blair; he was the only candidate spoken of seriously in Westminster. Appearances and news coverage leading up to the handover were interpreted as preparing the ground for Brown to become Prime Minister, in part by creating the impression of a statesman with a vision for leadership and global change. This enabled Brown to signal the most significant priorities for his agenda as Prime Minister; speaking at a Fabian Society conference on 'The Next Decade' in January 2007, he stressed education, international development, narrowing inequalities (to pursue 'equality of opportunity and fairness of outcome'), renewing Britishness, restoring trust in politics, and winning hearts and minds in the war on terror as key priorities.

Prime Minister

Brown ceased to be Chancellor and became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 27 June 2007. Brown was the first prime minister from a Scottish constituency since the Conservative Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1964. Not all British prime ministers have attended university, but of the ones that did Brown was one of only five that did not attend either Oxford or Cambridge, the others were, the Earl of Bute (Leiden), Lord John Russell (Edinburgh), Andrew Bonar Law (University of Glasgow), and Neville Chamberlain (Mason Science College, later Birmingham). Brown proposed moving some traditional prime ministerial powers conferred by royal prerogative to the realm of Parliament, such as the power to declare war and approve appointments to senior positions. Brown wanted Parliament to gain the right to ratify treaties and have more oversight into the intelligence services. He also proposed moving some powers from Parliament to citizens, including the right to form "citizens' juries", easily petition Parliament for new laws, and rally outside Westminster. He asserted that the attorney general should not have the right to decide whether to prosecute in individual cases, such as in the loans for peerages scandal.

During his Labour leadership campaign Brown proposed some policy initiatives which he called 'The manifesto for change.' The manifesto included a clampdown on corruption and a new Ministerial Code, which set out clear standards of behaviour for ministers. Brown also stated in a speech when announcing his bid that he wants a "better constitution" that is "clear about the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen in Britain today". He planned to set up an all-party convention to look at new powers for Parliament and to look at rebalancing powers between Whitehall and local government. Brown said he would give Parliament the final say on whether British troops are sent into action in future. Brown said he wanted to release more land and ease access to ownership with shared equity schemes. He backed a proposal to build new eco-towns, each housing between 10,000 and 20,000 home-owners — up to 100,000 new homes in total. Brown also said he wanted to have doctors' surgeries open at the weekends, and GPs on call in the evenings. Doctors were given the right of opting out of out-of-hours care in 2007, under a controversial pay deal, signed by then-Health Secretary John Reid, which awarded them a 22% pay rise in 2006. Brown also stated in the manifesto that the NHS was his top priority. There was speculation during September and early October 2007 about whether Brown would call a snap general election. Brown announced that there would be no election in the near future and seemed to rule out an election in 2008. His political opponents accused him of being indecisive, which Brown denied. In July 2008 Brown supported a new bill extending this pre-charge detention period to 42 days. The bill was met with opposition on both sides of the House and backbench rebellion. In the end the bill passed by just 9 votes. The House of Lords defeated the bill, with Lords characterising it as "fatally flawed, ill thought through and unnecessary", stating that "it seeks to further erode fundamental legal and civil rights".

Brown was mentioned by the press in the expenses crisis for claiming for the payment of his cleaner. However, no wrongdoing was found and the Commons Authority did not pursue Brown over the claim. Meanwhile, the Commons Fees Office stated that a double payment for a £153 plumbing repair bill was a mistake on their part and that Brown had repaid it in full.

Foreign policy

in the White House]] Brown was committed to the Iraq War, but said in a speech in June 2007 that he would "learn the lessons" from the mistakes made in Iraq. Brown said in a letter published on 17 March 2008 that the United Kingdom will hold an inquiry into the Iraq war.

Brown has gone to great lengths to empathise with those who lost family members in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. He has often said "War is tragic", echoing Blair's memorable quote that "War is horrible". Nonetheless, in November 2007 Brown was accused by some senior military figures of not adhering to the 'military covenant', a convention within British politics stating that in exchange for them putting their lives at risk for the sake of national security, the armed forces should in turn be suitably looked after by the government.

Brown skipped the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, on 8 August 2008 in Beijing. He attended the closing ceremony instead, on 24 August 2008. Brown had been under intense pressure from human rights campaigners to send a message to China, concerning the 2008 Tibetan unrest. His decision not to attend the opening ceremony was not an act of protest, rather made several weeks in advance and not intended as a stand on principle.

In a speech in July 2007, Brown personally clarified his position regarding Britain's relationship with the USA "We will not allow people to separate us from the United States of America in dealing with the common challenges that we face around the world. I think people have got to remember that the relationship between Britain and America and between a British prime minister and an American president is built on the things that we share, the same enduring values about the importance of liberty, opportunity, the dignity of the individual. I will continue to work, as Tony Blair did, very closely with the American administration."

Brown and the Labour party had pledged to allow a referendum on the EU Treaty of Lisbon. On the morning of 13 December 2007, Foreign Secretary David Miliband attended for the Prime Minister at the official signing ceremony in Lisbon of the EU Reform Treaty. Brown's opponents on both sides of the House, and in the press, suggested that ratification by Parliament was not enough and that a referendum should also be held. Labour's 2005 manifesto had pledged to give British public a referendum on the original EU Constitution. Brown argued that the Treaty significantly differed from the Constitution, and as such did not require a referendum. He also responded with plans for a lengthy debate on the topic, and stated that he believed the document to be too complex to be decided by referendum.

Drug policy

During Brown's premiership, in October 2008, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recommended to the then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that cannabis remain classified as a Class C drug. Acting against the advice of the Council, she chose to reclassify it as class B. Following his resignation, Professor Nutt said Gordon Brown had "made up his mind" to reclassify cannabis despite evidence to the contrary. Gordon Brown had argued, "I don't think that the previous studies took into account that so much of the cannabis on the streets is now of a lethal quality and we really have got to send out a message to young people – this is not acceptable". Professor Nutts predecessor at the ACMD, Sir Michael Rawlins, later said, "Governments may well have good reasons for taking an alternative view... When that happens, then the government should explain why it's ignoring the particular advice".

Global recession

Brown's premiership coincided with the global recession, during which the United Kingdom led calls for fiscal action to stimulate aggregate demand. Domestically, Brown's administration introduced a range of measures including a bank rescue package worth around £500 billion (approximately $850 billion), a temporary 2.5% cut in Value Added Tax (Sales Tax) and a "car scrappage" scheme.

Plots against leadership

In mid-2008, Brown's leadership was presented with a challenge as some MPs openly called for him to resign. This event was dubbed the 'Lancashire Plot', as two backbenchers from (pre-1974) Lancashire urged him to step down and a third questioned his chances of holding on to the Labour Party leadership. Several MPs argued that if Brown did not recover in the polls by early 2009, he should call for a leadership contest. However, certain prominent MPs, such as Jacqui Smith and Bill Rammell, suggested that Brown was the right person to lead Britain through its economic crisis. In the Autumn, Siobhain McDonagh, a MP and junior government whip, who during her time in office had never voted against the government, spoke of the need for discussion over Brown's position. McDonagh was sacked from her role shortly afterwards, on 12 September. Whilst McDonagh did not state that she wanted Brown deposed, she implored the Labour party to hold a leadership election, she was sacked from her role shortly afterwards. McDonagh was supported by Joan Ryan (who applied, as McDonagh had, for leadership nomination papers, and became the second rebel to be fired from her job), Jim Dowd, Greg Pope, and a string of others who had previously held positions in government, made clear their desire for a contest. In the face of this speculation over Brown's future, his ministers backed him to lead the party, and Harriet Harman and David Miliband denied that they were preparing leadership bids. After Labour lost the Glasgow East by-election in July, Harman, the deputy leader of the party, said that Brown was the "solution", not the "problem"; Home Secretary Smith, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Schools Secretary Ed Balls and Cabinet Office Minister Ed Miliband all re-affirmed their support for Brown. The deputy Prime Minister under Blair, John Prescott, also pledged his support. Foreign Secretary David Miliband then denied that he was plotting a leadership bid, when on 30 July, an article written by him in The Guardian was interpreted by a large number in the media as an attempt to undermine Brown. In the article, Miliband outlined the party's future, but neglected to mention the Prime Minister. Miliband, responded to this by saying that he was confident Brown could lead Labour to victory in the next general election, and that his article was an attack against the fatalism in the party since the loss of Glasgow-East. Miliband continued to show his support for Brown in the face of the challenge that emerged in September, as did Business Secretary John Hutton, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, and Chief Whip Geoff Hoon.

On 6 January 2010, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon jointly called for a secret ballot on the future of Brown's leadership. The call received little support and the following day Hoon said that it appeared to have failed and was "over". Brown later referred to the call for a secret ballot as a "form of silliness".

By-elections and 2009 local and European elections

in 2006|alt=Gordon Brown shakes hands with Vladimir Putin]] In the local elections on 1 May 2008, Labour suffered their worst results in 40 years finishing in third place with a projected 24% share of the national vote. Subsequently the party has seen the loss of by-elections in Nantwich and Crewe and Henley as well as slumps in the polls. A by-election in Glasgow East triggered by the resignation of David Marshall saw the Labour party struggle to appoint a candidate, eventually settling for Margaret Curran, a sitting MSP in the Scottish Parliament. The SNP, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have all derided the party for their disorganised nature with Alex Salmond commenting "This is their 'lost weekend' – they don't have a leader in Scotland, they don't have a candidate in Glasgow East, and they have a prime minister who refuses to come to the constituency". Labour lost the constituency to the Scottish National Party's John Mason who took 11,277 votes with Labour just 365 behind. The seat experienced a swing of 22.54%.

In the European elections, Labour polled 16% of the vote, finishing in third place behind the Conservatives and United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Voter apathy was reflected in the historically low turnout of around thirty three percent. In Scotland voter turnout was only twenty eight per cent. In the local elections, Labour polled 23% of the vote, finishing in third place behind Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with Labour losing control of the four councils it had held prior to the election. In a vote widely considered to be a reaction to the expenses scandal, the share of the votes was down for all the major parties; Labour was down one percent, the Conservative share was down five percent. The beneficiary of the public backlash was generally seen to be the minor parties, including the Green Party and UKIP. These results were Labour's worst since World War II. Gordon Brown was quoted in the press as having said that the results were "a painful defeat for Labour", and that "too many good people doing so much good for their communities and their constituencies have lost through no fault of their own."

General election 2010

the day before the 2010 Election.]] In April 2010, Brown asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament and call new elections, which included the first televised leadership debates in British History. The result of the election was a hung parliament.

Brown was re-elected to serve as MP for Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath constituency on 6 May 2010 with 29,559 votes representing 64.5% of votes. The following day, negotiations between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats failed. During the evening, Brown visited Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation as Prime Minister to Queen Elizabeth II and to recommend that she invite the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, to form a government. He resigned as leader of the Labour Party with immediate effect.

World Wide Web Foundation

Sir Tim Berners-Lee worked with the UK government during Brown's premiership to publish government data as freely as possible on the internet in the data.gov.uk project. Sir Tim subsequently invited Brown to become a board director of the World Wide Web Foundation to "advise the Web Foundation on ways to involve disadvantaged communities and global leaders in the development of sustainable programs that connect humanity and affect positive change".

Depictions in popular culture

In keeping with its tradition of having a comic strip for every Prime Minister Private Eye featured a comic strip, The Broonites (a parody of The Broons), parodying Brown's government. Private Eye also had a column titled Prime Ministerial Decree, a parody of statements that would be issued by Communist governments in the former Eastern Bloc.

Brown was depicted in Season 13 of South Park when world leaders plot to steal money from aliens in order to deal with the global recession, in the episode "Pinewood Derby". He also makes an appearance in the first issue of Marvel Comics' , overseeing Britain's response to the Skrull invasion of Earth.

Personal life and family

Brown's early girlfriends included the journalist Sheena McDonald and Princess Margarita, the eldest daughter of exiled King Michael of Romania. On 28 December 2001 a daughter, Jennifer Jane, was born prematurely and died on 7 January 2002 one day after suffering a brain haemorrhage. They currently have two children, John Macaulay and James Fraser. In November 2006, James Fraser was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

Gordon Brown commented at the time that their recent experiences had changed him and his wife. Sarah Brown rarely makes official appearances either with or without her husband. She is inevitably much sought after to give interviews. She is, however, patron of several charities and has written articles for national newspapers related to this. At the 2008 Labour Party Conference, Sarah caused surprise by taking to the stage to introduce her husband for his keynote address. Since then, her public profile has increased.

He has two brothers, John Brown and Andrew Brown. Andrew has been Head of Media Relations in the UK for the French-owned utility company EDF Energy since 2004. Whilst PM he spent some of his spare time at Chequers, the house often being filled with friends. They have also entertained local dignitaries like Sir Leonard Figg. Brown is also a friend of Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, who says of Brown "I know him as affable, funny and gregarious, a great listener, a kind and loyal friend."

Religion

The son of a Church of Scotland minister, Brown has talked about what he called his "moral compass" and to his parents being his "inspiration". He is seemingly keen to keep his religion a private matter. According to the Guardian, he is a member of the Church of Scotland.

In April 2009, Brown gave what was the first ever speech by a serving Prime Minister at St Paul's Cathedral in London. He referred to a 'single powerful modern sense demanding responsibility from all and fairness to all'. He also talked about the Christian doctrine of 'do to others what you would have them do unto you', which he compared to similar principles in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. He went on, 'They each and all reflect a sense that we share the pain of others, and a sense that we believe in something bigger than ourselves—that we cannot be truly content while others face despair, cannot be completely at ease while others live in fear, cannot be satisfied while others are in sorrow", and continued, "We all feel, regardless of the source of our philosophy, the same deep moral sense that each of us is our brother and sisters' keeper... We cannot and will not pass by on the other side when people are suffering and when we have it within our power to help.'

Socialism

Brown first thought of himself as being 'Labour' and his sense of social injustice was roused when he accompanied his father on visits around Kirkcaldy seeing the pain of unemployment and the misery of poverty and squalor as the mining and textile industries collapsed. Growing up he discovered Tawney, Tressell, Cole and other socialist texts which inspired him. He also found inspiration in Blake in poetry, Potter in drama, Lawrence in literature and the socialist leader James Maxton in Scottish history. These, he argues, fuelled his passion and activism, reinforcing his own political experience. For Brown the ethical basis of British socialism has several themes: the view that individuals are not primarily self-centered but are co-operative, that people are more likely to thrive in communities in which they play a full role and that people have talents and potential that the free market will not allow them to fully realise. In addition, one of the most enduring of Brown's themes is the commitment to equality.

Titles, honours, and awards

Styles

Mr James Gordon Brown (1951–1982)

Dr James Gordon Brown (1982–1983) The Rt Hon. Dr James Gordon Brown MP (1996–present)

Honours

In March 2009 Brown was named World Statesman of the Year by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an American organisation dedicated to promoting peace, human rights and understanding between religious faiths. The award was presented by Rabbi Arthur Schneier who praised Brown's "compassionate leadership in dealing with the challenging issues facing humanity, his commitment to freedom, human dignity and the environment, and for the major role he has played in helping to stabilize the world's financial system".

As a former Prime Minister, Brown may be appointed to the Order of the Garter after leaving public life. However, because of his Scottish ancestry, it has also been considered that he may more appropriately be appointed to the Order of the Thistle, as was Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister from 1963–64.

Publications

See also

UK general elections: 1983, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2010

References

Further reading

;Biographies

External links

Gordon Brown Official government profile

Gordon Brown at Encyclopædia Britannica

Tour diary: Gordon Brown in Africa BBC News, January 2005 trip about his 'Marshall plan for Africa'

;Speeches

Transcript of Gordon Brown's acceptance speech ePolitix, 17 May 2007

Transcript of first speech as Labour Party Leader ePolitix, 24 June 2007

Address to the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly September 2008

Manifesto speech transcript ePolitix, 12 April 2010

|- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- ! colspan="3" style="background:#cfc;" | Order of precedence in Northern Ireland

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Chris Carey is Professor of Greek at University College London (UCL). In April 2000 The Independent named him as one of the "stars of modern classical scholarship".

Biography

Carey began his career at Cambridge University, as a research fellow at Jesus College, before moving to St Andrews University, where he taught from 1977 to 1991 except for a visiting professorship at University of Minnesota in 1987-8. While in Minnesota he also taught at Carleton College. In 1991 he was elected Professor of Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London before moving to UCL to take up the Chair of Greek in 2003.

Teaching

At UCL he teaches Ancient Greek, Greek tragedy and comedy, Athenian law and Homer.

Scholarship

Carey's PhD was on Pindar and was supervised by P. E. Easterling, John Killen and the late Sir Denys Page. Over the years he has also published on lyric poetry, Homer and Athenian law. He recently completed the Oxford Text of the orator Lysias.

He is currently under contract to produce a Cambridge University Press commentary on Book 7 of Herodotus.

Outside activities

Carey is well known for his love of London and London life. He is a great proselytizer for Classics, giving frequent lectures to school audiences, and is a patron of The Iris Project.

References

External links

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/

http://www.irismagazine.org/

Category:British academics Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people