During his long term of office, former UK prime minister Gordon Brown became one of the world's most experienced political leaders, with a deep understanding of the global economy based on 10 years' experience as Great Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer. He has been a key architect of the G8's agreements on poverty and climate change, and has provided a passionate voice to encourage the developed world to aid struggling African countries. He is an advocate of global solutions for global problems -- through both the reinvention of international institution and the advancement of a global ethics.
While prime minister, Brown promoted technology as a tool for economic (and environmental) recovery. With his charge to "count the carbon and the pennies," research on electric cars and residential energy efficiency are slated to become a major part of the UK's recovery plan. He pushed for universal broadband and a general increase in spending on science. And he sought to use new communication tools like Twitter and YouTube as a means to communicate government policy.
“Brown does not run from the image of the homme sérieux.” — New York Review of Books
Can the interests of an individual nation be reconciled with humanity’s greater good? Can a patriotic, nationally elected politician really give people in other countries equal consideration? Following his TEDTalk calling for a global ethic, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown fields questions from TED Curator Chris Anderson. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009, Oxford, UK. […]
Continue readingWe’re at a unique moment in history, says UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking earlier today at TEDGlobal in Oxford. He says we can use today’s interconnectedness to develop our shared global ethic — and work together to confront the challenges of poverty, security, climate change and the economy. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009 […]
Continue readingThe much-buzzed-about surprise speaker at the first session of TEDGlobal 2009 was finally revealed to be British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. A Twitterer himself, the Prime Minster’s appearance on the TED stage quickly drove the #TED tag into Twitter’s top trending topics today. Here’s a slice of what people were tweeting: our Prime Minister was […]
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