Farewell to Gordon Brown

Nile Gardiner /

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown attends a meeting in Stratford, east London where he spoke with local Labour Party activists on June 7, 2009. Gordon Brown today sought to face down his critics, vowing that he would not "walk away" in the face of political and economic difficulties. Addressing Labour activists in East London he pledged to push on with measures to tackle the recession and clean up Parliament.

Gordon Brown continues to cling desperately to power, in a shameless display of contempt for public opinion, but his days as prime minister are surely numbered. A poll on Sunday showed 68 percent of Britons opposed to Brown remaining in office, and calling on him to resign. The PM held desperate talks over the weekend with Nick Clegg in the vain hope of forming a coalition, but so far the Liberal leader has failed to respond to his advances, preferring to look for a deal with Conservative party leader David Cameron. There is longstanding bad blood between the two politicians, and even as recently as this Friday, Brown was reported to have ranted over the phone in anger at his Liberal counterpart. (more…)