#gordon-brown

#gordon-brown

For a while, during the 13 years when Gordon Brown was at the apex of British politics, it became fashionable, and then a cliche, to depict him as a Shakespearean protagonist. He was the Scot who would be king, consumed by vaulting ambition for the throne, or else the powerful man of action, devoured by envy of his onetime friend.

"Well, this is obviously serious. I mean, there's always speculation. It happened to me, it happened to Tony Blair, it happens to everybody about how their future should be gauged. But this is serious and the task is very clear. We've got to clean up the system...and end the corruption and unethical behaviour. And if we don't do it, we'll pay a heavy price."