| Name | Paula Wilcox |
|---|---|
| Caption | Wilcox with her Man About The House co-star Richard O'Sullivan |
| Birthdate | December 13, 1949 |
| Birthplace | Manchester, England |
| Yearsactive | 1969 - present |
Paula Wilcox (born 13 December 1949, Manchester) is an English actress.
In Man About The House (Thames), she played Chrissy Plummer, another flighty but principled woman who was regularly in a flirtatious battle of wits with her male flatmate Robin, played by Richard O'Sullivan. The show was a huge success and ended with Wilcox's character marrying Robin's brother Norman (Norman Eshley). She also starred in the feature film of the same show.
She participated in "The Lonely Miss Fox" sketch on an episode of The Benny Hill Show (Thames) that aired on 23 February 1972.
In 1977, Wilcox took the eponymous role in Miss Jones and Son, another Thames series, which broke new ground as the first depiction of a single mother in British situation comedy.
From 20 October 2008 she appeared in the London production of La cage aux folles which has transferred to the West End as Mme Dindon.
From July to November 2009 she appeared in Stella Feehily's play Dreams of Violence for Out of Joint and Soho Theatre.
Wilcox has recently finished a run playing Ellie in the Jonathon Harvey play 'Canary' at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre.
In recent years, Wilcox has made guest appearances in programmes such as Footballers' Wives, Holby City and Down to Earth. These guest roles led her to be cast as Lilian in the BBC Three cult sitcom The Smoking Room.
On 27 October 2006, Wilcox was seen in the popular Only Fools and Horses spin-off The Green Green Grass as Marlene's sister. She has also played another character in the Only Fools and Horses universe, appearing in the Christmas 2010 episode of Rock and Chips, playing Edward "Grandad" Trotter's estranged wife Violet. She also had a cameo role in the Woody Allen movie Scoop. In 2007 Wilcox joined the cast of Emmerdale as Hilary Potts, mother of the Vicar's wife, Laurel Thomas.
Category:1949 births Category:Actors from Manchester Category:Audio book narrators Category:British actors Category:English actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:Living people
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Miss Jones |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Tarsha Jones |
| Origin | New York, New York |
| Genre | Hip hop |
| Occupation | [radio personality] |
| Years active | 1994–2001 |
| Label | Tommy Boy, Motown |
| Associated acts | Doug E. Fresh |
| Name | Miss Jones |
|---|---|
| Birthname | Tarsha Jones |
| Birth place | New York City, United States |
| Show | Jonesy in the Morning |
| Station | WUSL |
| Timeslot | 6 a.m.-10 a.m. |
| Style | Radio presenterDisc jockey |
| Country | United States |
| Prevshow | 'Miss Jones In The Morning |
| Web |
She wrote an autobiography, Have You Met Miss Jones?: The Life and Loves of Radio's Most Controversial Diva, in 2007, published by Random House.
On June 28, 2008, Hot 97's contract with Miss Jones expired. Radio show Big Boy's Neighborhood, hosted by Big boy and MTV VJ Liz Hernandez, succeeded Jones's former morning show.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Max Mosley |
|---|---|
| Caption | FIA President Max Mosley in 1969 |
| Birth date | April 13, 1940 |
| Birth place | London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Title | President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile |
| Predecessor | Jean-Marie Balestre |
| Successor | Jean Todt |
| Residence | Monaco |
| Parents | Sir Oswald Mosley (deceased)Diana, Lady Mosley (deceased) |
| Spouse | Jean Taylor (1960-present) |
| Children | Alexander (deceased), Patrick |
A former barrister and amateur racing driver, Mosley was a founder and co-owner of March Engineering, a successful racing car constructor and Formula One racing team. He looked after legal and commercial issues for the company between 1969 and 1977. In the late 1970s, Mosley became the official legal adviser to the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA), the body that represents Formula One constructors. In this role he drew up the first version of the Concorde Agreement, which settled a long-standing dispute between FOCA and the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), the then governing body of Formula One. Mosley was elected president of FISA in 1991 and became president of the FIA, FISA's parent body, in 1993. Mosley has identified his major achievement as FIA President as the promotion of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP or Encap), a European car safety performance assessment programme. He has also promoted increased safety and the use of green technologies in motor racing. In 2008, stories about his sex life appeared in the British press. Despite the controversy, Mosley retained his position. He stood down at the end of his term in 2009 and was replaced by his preferred successor, Jean Todt.
Mosley is the youngest son of Oswald Mosley, former leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), and Diana Mitford. He was educated in France, Germany and Britain before going on to attend university at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with a degree in physics. In his teens and early twenties Mosley was involved with his father's post-war political party, the Union Movement (UM). He has said that the association of his surname with fascism stopped him from developing his interest in politics further, although he briefly worked for the Conservative Party in the early 1980s.
Sir Oswald and Lady Mosley were released from detention at HMP Holloway on 16 November 1943, provoking widespread public protests. Their children were refused entry to several schools, due to a combination of their wildness and their parents' reputation, and were initially tutored at home. The family moved to a succession of country houses in England. Mosley's older half-brother Nicholas describes the family, including Sir Oswald’s children from his first marriage, spending the summer of 1945 getting the harvest in and shooting at Crowood Farm. In 1950, the Mosleys bought houses in the Republic of Ireland, and in Orsay, near Paris. The family spent the year moving around Europe, spending the spring in France and the autumn and winter in Ireland, where Mosley was keen on riding and hunting.
Initially Mosley was educated in France, then at the age of 13 he was sent to Stein an der Traun in Germany for two years, where he learned to speak fluent German. Rejecting an early ambition to work as a physicist after "establishing that there was no money in it", Mosley went on to study law at Gray's Inn in London, specialising in patent and trademark law, and qualified as a barrister in 1964. During the early 1960s, Mosley was also a member of the Territorial Army, training as a parachutist. and they had two sons together, neither of whom has married or had children: Alexander James Mosley (5 April 1970 - 5 May 2009) and Patrick Max Mosley (born 18 February 1972). In addition to his brother, Mosley has five older half-siblings. On his father's side they are Vivien Mosley, the novelist Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale and Michael Mosley. On his mother's side they are the Irish preservationist, Desmond Guinness, and the merchant banker, Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne. Mosley's 39-year-old son Alexander, a restaurateur, was found dead on 5 May 2009 at his home. The Westminster coroner declared at an inquest on 10 June 2009 that he died due to cocaine intoxication.
Mosley was later an election agent for the Union Movement, supporting Walter Hesketh as parliamentary candidate for Moss Side in 1962. The motor racing journalist Alan Henry describes him as one of his father's "right-hand men" at the time of a violent incident in 1962, in which Sir Oswald was knocked down by a mob in London and saved from serious injury by his son's intervention. As a result of his involvement in this fracas, Mosley was arrested and charged with threatening behaviour. He was later cleared at Old Street Magistrates' Court on the grounds that he was trying to protect his father. In 1964, Mosley himself was a prospective UM candidate.
In the early 1980s, Mosley attempted a political career, working for the UK Conservative Party and hoping to become a parliamentary candidate. Bernie Ecclestone's biographer, Terry Lovell, writes that he gave up this aspiration after being unimpressed by "the calibre of senior party officials". The sport's indifference to his background appealed to Mosley:
At national level in the UK, Mosley competed in over 40 races in 1966 and 1967; he won 12 and set several class lap records. In 1968, he formed the London Racing Team in partnership with driver Chris Lambert to compete in European Formula Two, the level of racing just below Formula One. Their cars were prepared by Frank Williams, later a Formula One team owner. It was a dangerous time to race. Early in the year, Mosley competed in the 1968 Deutschland Trophäe, the Formula Two race at Hockenheim in which double world champion Jim Clark was killed, and within two years both of Mosley's 1968 team mates were dead in racing accidents. Mosley's best result that year was an eighth place at a non-championship race at Monza.]] In 1969, after two large accidents due to breakages on his Lotus car, Mosley decided that "it was evident that I wasn't going to be World Champion" and retired from driving.
Mosley played a key role in publicising the new outfit. Although March had few resources and limited experience, the firm announced ambitious plans to enter Formula One, the pinnacle of single-seater racing, in 1970. The team had initially intended to enter a single car, but by the beginning of the season (partly due to deals made by Mosley), the number of March cars entered for their first Formula One race had risen to five. Two of these were run by March's own in-house and the rest by customer teams. Mosley also negotiated sponsorship from tyre maker Firestone and oil additive manufacturer STP.
The new operation was initially successful. In Formula One, March cars won three of their first four races. One of these was a world championship race, the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix, won by reigning world champion Jackie Stewart in a customer car run by Tyrrell Racing. As a result, March finished third in the 1970 Constructors' Championship. The factory also sold 40 cars to customers in various lower formulae. Despite these successes, the organisation got into financial difficulty almost immediately. The Formula One operation was costing more than the customer car business was making. The March works team's contract with its lead driver, Chris Amon, was expensive, and Mosley, in his own words, "tried at every opportunity to get rid of him". He reasoned that Stewart's highly competitive customer car was enough to show March in a good light. Amon stayed to the end of the year, but Mosley succeeded in "restructuring" his contract, saving the company some much-needed money. At the end of the season, Mosley successfully demanded full control of the finances, including the factory run by Coaker, who left shortly afterwards. Mosley and Herd borrowed £20,000 from relatives and friends to support the company into its second year. According to Lovell the money came from Mosley's half-brother, Jonathan Guinness.
Tyrrell started making its own cars towards the end of 1970, and March's 1971 program in Formula One was much reduced, with no recognised front-running driver. The Firestone and STP sponsorship was insufficient and Mosley failed to attract a large backer for 1971. Motorsport author Mike Lawrence has suggested that the shortfall forced him into short-term deals, which maintained cashflow, but were not in the best long-term interests of the company. Mosley negotiated a deal for the team to use Alfa Romeo engines in a third car, bringing much needed funding. The engines proved uncompetitive, and his hopes of an ongoing partnership with the Italian automobile manufacturer were not met. Nonetheless, March again finished third in the constructors championship, and works driver Ronnie Peterson, in a Cosworth DFV-powered car, was second in the Drivers' Championship. March's financial woes continued: the company had lost £71,000 at the end of 1971. Mosley and Rees disagreed over how to rectify the situation and Rees left March early in 1972. to be built as a publicity device. Sales of models of the car are said to make it the most profitable car the company ever made. March cars powered by BMW engines won five of the next 11 European Formula Two championships. However, BMW also put pressure on Herd to concentrate on the Formula Two programme. As a result, he spent less time with the Formula One team, where Mosley started to act as a race engineer.
Although March considered quitting Formula One on several occasions, money was always found to support at least one car. Motorsport historian Mike Lawrence credits Mosley with pressing for a six-wheeled March to be built as a draw for sponsors, having seen the popularity with fans of Tyrrell's six-wheeled P34. The resulting March 2-4-0 never competed in Formula One, but generated the required publicity and a Scalextric slotcar model was profitable. Mosley spent much of his time negotiating deals for drivers with sponsorship and was also successful in selling Marches to other Formula One teams, such as Williams and Penske. The cars were rarely frontrunners, although the works team won a single race in both 1975 and 1976. By the end of 1977, Mosley was fed up with the struggle to compete in Formula One with no resources and left to work for FOCA full time, selling his shares in the company to Herd but remaining as a director. March's involvement in Formula One ended the same year.
From 1969, Mosley was invited to represent March at the Grand Prix Constructors' Association (GPCA), which negotiated joint deals on behalf of its member teams. Although the new March organisation was not popular with the established teams, Mosley has said that "when they went along to meetings to discuss things such as prize money, they felt they ought to take me along because I was a lawyer". He was unimpressed with the standard of negotiations: "our side all went in a group because no-one trusted anyone else and all were afraid that someone would break ranks and make a private deal." After leaving March at the end of , Mosley officially became legal advisor to FOCA, which was led by Ecclestone. In his biography of Ecclestone, Terry Lovell suggests that he appointed Mosley to this role not only because of his legal ability, but also because he "saw in Mosley the necessary diplomatic and political skills that made him perfectly suited to the establishment of the FIA". The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) was FISA's parent body, representing car users worldwide. In the same year, Mosley was nominated for a role at the FIA Bureau Internationale de Constructeurs d'Automobile. His nomination was blocked by French, Italian and German manufacturers.
In the early 1980s, Mosley represented FOCA in the "FISA-FOCA War", a conflict between FOCA, representing the mainly UK-based independent teams, and FISA, which was supported by the "grandee" constructors owned by road car manufacturers (primarily Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Renault). In 1981, FOCA announced its own World Federation of Motor Sport and ran the non-championship 1981 South African Grand Prix. The staging of this event, with worldwide television coverage, helped persuade Jean-Marie Balestre, the FISA president, that FISA would have to negotiate a settlement with FOCA. As Mosley has since commented: "We were absolutely . If Balestre could have held the manufacturer's support for a little bit longer, the constructors would have been on their knees. The outcome would then have been very different." Mosley helped draw up the Concorde Agreement, a document which resolved the dispute by essentially giving FISA control of the rules and FOCA control of promotion and television rights. The most recent version of the Concorde Agreement expired on 31 December 2007, and a new one was being discussed, as of 2008. In 1982, the year after the first Concorde Agreement was signed, Mosley left his role at FOCA, and Formula One, to work for the Conservative Party.
In 1991, Mosley challenged Balestre for the presidency of FISA. Mosley said that his decision to challenge the Frenchman was prompted by Balestre's reported intervention on behalf of his countryman Alain Prost to ensure that race stewards disqualified Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna from the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix. Mosley campaigned on the basis that Balestre, who was also president of the FIA and of the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile, could not effectively manage all these roles together. He also said that no-one challenged Balestre because they were afraid of the consequences and suggested that the FISA President should not interfere with F1, which could be left to run itself. Mosley won the FISA presidency by 43 votes to 29; Balestre remained as FIA president. Mosley resigned a year later, fulfilling a promise made during his election campaign to seek a re-affirmation of his mandate. "I wanted to show people that I do what I say", he said. "Now they can judge me in a year's time." FISA immediately re-elected him.
In 1995, a deal was signed between Ecclestone and the FIA that passed all of the commercial rights to Formula One to him for 15 years, on the condition that they would return to the FIA at the end of that period. Ecclestone had been building up Formula One as a television package since the early 1990s, investing heavily in new digital television technology. For the duration of the deal, the FIA would receive an index-linked annual fixed royalty, estimated by Lovell at around 15%. Mosley said "My belief is that I got a better deal than anyone else could have because it was more difficult for Ecclestone to take a hard line with me as we had worked together for so long." The following year the FIA also passed the rights to all its other directly sanctioned championships and events to Ecclestone, also for 15 years, Mosley's agreement with Ecclestone on TV rights for F1 angered three of the team principals in particular: Ron Dennis (McLaren), Frank Williams (Williams) and Ken Tyrrell (Tyrrell), who felt that neither Ecclestone nor the FIA had the right to make such an agreement without the teams. They refused to sign the 1997 Concorde Agreement without increased financial returns and threatened to make a complaint under European Union competition rules. The European Commission was already investigating the FIA’s agreement with Ecclestone in what Lovell calls a “highly personal and bitter battle between Max Mosley and [EU commissioner Karel] van Miert”.
At the same time, a local court in Germany ruled that the television rights to the FIA European Truck Racing Cup (passed to Ecclestone by the FIA the previous year, along with all other FIA authorised championships) should be returned to the series organiser. Mosley immediately cancelled the series, but reversed the decision when threatened with a fine or prison sentence by the court. Between 1997 and 2000 Mosley repeatedly said that if the EU decision went against the FIA, the marketing organisations and F1 itself would be moved out of Europe. In 2000, the EU Commission Directorate-General for Competition decided that the FIA’s practices were against European competition law. The rights to FIA-authorised series were returned to the series organisers. In order to maintain Ecclestone's investment to deliver digital television and satisfy the EU that the rights had effectively been disposed of by the FIA, Mosley came up with the idea of extending Ecclestone's rights for F1 coverage to 100 years from the initial 15. He removed himself from the detailed negotiations, which eventually returned around $300 million (£150 million) for the 100-year rights, a figure which Lovell compares to the £600 million KirchGruppe paid for the rights to the 2002 Football World Cup and the £1.1 billion British Sky Broadcasting paid for a three year package of English Premier League football.
. Mosley attempted to delay European legislation to outlaw the practice.]] Over the same period, Mosley was attempting to delay European legislation banning tobacco advertising. At this time all leading Formula One teams carried significant branding from tobacco brands such as Rothmans, West, Marlboro and Mild Seven. The Labour party had pledged to ban tobacco advertising in its manifesto ahead of its 1997 General Election victory, supporting a proposed European Union Directive. The Labour Party's stance on banning tobacco advertising was reinforced following the election by forceful statements from the Health Secretary Frank Dobson and Minister for Public Health Tessa Jowell. Ecclestone appealed "over Jowell's head" to Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff, who arranged a meeting with Blair. Ecclestone and Mosley, both Labour Party donors, met Blair on 16 October 1997. Mosley argued that the proposed legislation was illegal by EU rules, that Formula One needed more time to find alternative sources of funding and that the prompt introduction of a ban would lead to races being held outside Europe, while the coverage, including tobacco logos, would still be broadcast into the EU. He also argued that: On 4 November the "fiercely anti-tobacco Jowell" argued in Brussels for an exemption for Formula One. Media attention initially focused on Labour bending its principles for a "glamour sport" and on the "false trail" of Jowell's husband's links to the Benetton Formula One team. On 6 November correspondents from three newspapers inquired whether Labour had received any donations from Ecclestone; he had donated £1 million in January 1997. On 17 November Blair apologised for his government's mishandling of the affair and stated "the decision to exempt Formula One from tobacco sponsorship was taken two weeks later. It was in response to fears that Britain might lose the industry overseas to Asian countries who were bidding for it."
The revised directive went into force in June 1998, and banned sponsorship from 2003, with a further three year extension for "global sports such as Formula One". On 5 October 2000, the directive was successfully overturned in the European Court of Justice on the grounds that it was unlawful. A new Tobacco Advertising Directive took effect in July 2005; the Financial Times described Mosley as "furious" that this was a year earlier than provided for under the 1998 directive. As of 2009, Ferrari is the only F1 team to retain tobacco sponsorship, although the team carries no explicit branding in races because of the European legislation. Although the FIA moved its headquarters out of the EU in 1999, it returned in 2001; all of the F1 teams remain in Europe, and six are in the UK, compared to seven of eleven at the end of 1997.
Asked in a 2003 interview about his most enduring achievement as president of the FIA, Mosley replied: "I think using Formula One to push Encap Crash-Testing." The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP or Encap) is a European car safety performance assessment programme that originated with work done by the Transport Research Laboratory for the UK Department for Transport. The FIA became involved in the programme in 1996, taking a lead in promoting it, and Mosley chaired the initiative from its launch as Euro NCAP in 1997 to 2004. Despite what NCAP describes as a "strong negative response" from car manufacturers at first, the initiative has expanded, and NCAP says that there has been a clear increase in the safety of modern cars as a result. Mosley has continued to promote the matter through his membership of initiatives such as CARS 21, the European Commission’s policy group aimed at improving the worldwide competitiveness of the European automotive industry. In February 2001, Mosley announced his intention to stand again for the presidency in October of that year, saying that if successful this third term would be his last.
In June 2004, Mosley announced that he would step down from his position in October of that year, one year early, saying "I no longer find it either satisfying or interesting to sit in long meetings [...] I have achieved in this job everything I set out to [...]". One month later, he rescinded his decision after the FIA Senate called for him to stay on. According to a BBC Sport profile, many insiders considered that the announcement, and Mosley's public disagreements with Ecclestone, were "just part of a well crafted plan to strengthen their control over the sport"; Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal, suggested that it arose because Mosley's proposals for Formula One met opposition. In 2004, Mosley said he felt Ferrari's then-team principal Jean Todt should succeed him as president of the FIA when he stepped down.
The 2005 United States Grand Prix was run with only six cars, after the Michelin tyres used by the other 14 cars proved unsafe for the circuit. A proposal involving the addition of a temporary chicane to slow cars through the fastest corner of the circuit was rejected by Mosley. This effectively forced the teams running Michelin tyres to pull out for safety reasons. Paul Stoddart, the then-owner of the Minardi team, was prepared to compromise to accommodate Michelin teams—even though a reduced field would guarantee his team much needed points—and was particularly vocal in his criticism and renewed his calls for Mosley to resign.
Continuing a theme of his presidency, in 2006 Mosley called for Formula One manufacturers to develop technology relevant to road cars. In recent years, a large proportion of the enormous budget of Formula One has been spent on the development of very powerful, very high-revving engines, which some say have little applicability to road cars. Mosley has announced a 10-year freeze on the development of engines, which would allow manufacturers to spend more of their budgets on environmentally friendly technology such as the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) introduced in 2009. In July 2008, he sent a letter to the Formula One teams, in which he called for the teams to propose future sporting regulations to address specific issues including reduced fuel consumption.
The 2007 Formula One season was dominated by Ferrari's accusations that the McLaren team had made illegal use of their intellectual property, leading to legal cases in the United Kingdom and Italy. Unlike previous cases, such as the Toyota team's illegal use of Ferrari intellectual property in 2004, the FIA investigated the case and eventually fined McLaren a net $100M and excluded the team from the 2007 constructors' championship. Later in the year, the Renault team was found guilty by the FIA of possessing McLaren's intellectual property, but was not punished. Triple world champion Jackie Stewart criticised Mosley, who later called him a "certified half-wit"; the Scot, who is dyslexic, has since said that others did not back McLaren for "fear of repercussions". TV commentator and newspaper columnist Martin Brundle, a former driver, was among those who criticised the FIA and Mosley for inconsistency; he subsequently received a writ for questioning the "energetic manner" in which he felt Mosley was pursuing McLaren.
At the start of 2008, Mosley said that he wanted to see through reforms such as budget capping and new technologies like KERS successfully introduced into Formula One before retiring. In March of that year the News of the World, a British tabloid newspaper, released video footage of Mosley engaged in sado-masochistic sexual acts with five sex workers in a scenario that the paper said involved Nazi role-playing, a situation made more controversial by his father's association with the Nazis. Mosley admitted "the embarrassment the revelations caused", but said that there was no Nazi theme involved. He was strongly criticised by former drivers, motor manufacturers and several of the national motoring bodies who form the FIA. His involvement in several high level motor sport events was cancelled. Public expressions of support were limited. Mosley says that he received much supportive correspondence, and said that he would continue to the end of his current term, which he said would be his last. Mosley's long time ally Ecclestone eventually appeared to support Mosley's removal.
Mosley won a vote of confidence at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the FIA on June 3, with 103 votes in support and 55 against, with seven abstentions and four invalid votes. Several clubs, including the ADAC, AAA and KNAF considered withdrawal from the FIA after the decision. Other formerly critical organisations have since said that they will accept the outcome of the vote and now wish to move on. In July 2008, Mosley won a High Court legal case against the News of the World for invasion of privacy. The presiding judge, Mr Justice Eady, said: "I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust."
In December 2008, Mosley said that he still intended to stand down when his term ran out in October 2009, but would take the final decision in June of that year. Mosley's close relationship with Ecclestone, the sport's promoter, was criticised in early 2009 by Sir Jackie Stewart, who suggested that Mosley should resign in favour of a CEO from outside motorsport. On 23 June Mosley said that he would be happy to run for a fifth term as FIA president in October "in light of the attack on my mandate". Luca di Montezemolo welcomed Mosley's decision to stand down and called Mosley a 'dictator'. Mosley responded by saying that unless he received an apology, he would consider his 'options open' and might well stand for re-election in October after all. He later said that he was "under pressure from all over the world" to stand for re-election. On 15 July, Mosley confirmed that he would after all stand down, and again endorsed former Ferrari Executive Director Jean Todt as his successor. Todt went on to win the presidency.
Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Auto racing executives Category:English expatriates in Monaco Category:English motorsport people Category:Formula One people Category:Old Millfieldians Category:People from London Category:World Rally Championship people Category:1940 births Category:Living people
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| 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 |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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."
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.
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.
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."
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.'
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.
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Category:1951 births Category:Academics of Glasgow Caledonian University Category:Academics of the Open University Category:Alumni of Kirkcaldy High School Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Chancellors of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom Category:Commission for Africa members Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs Category:Leaders of the Labour Party (UK) Category:Living people Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for Fife constituencies Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for Scottish constituencies Category:People associated with the campaign for Scottish devolution Category:People from Kirkcaldy Category:People from Renfrewshire Category:Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom Category:Rectors of the University of Edinburgh Category:Scottish journalists Category:Scottish Labour Party politicians Category:Scottish Presbyterians Category:Scottish scholars and academics Category:UK MPs 1983–1987 Category:UK MPs 1987–1992 Category:UK MPs 1992–1997 Category:UK MPs 1997–2001 Category:UK MPs 2001–2005 Category:UK MPs 2005–2010 Category:UK MPs 2010– Category:Youth rights individuals
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