Speakers Gordon Brown: British Prime Minister
Britain's former prime minister Gordon Brown played a key role in shaping the G20 nations' response to the world's financial crisis, and was a powerful advocate for a coordinated global response to problems such as climate change, poverty and social justice.
Why you should listen to him:
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
Quotes by Gordon Brown
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“What seems sometimes to be altruism, in relation to Africa, or in relation to developing countries, is more than that. It is enlightened self-interest.”
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“You’ve got to have a healthy sense of patriotism; that’s absolutely important, but … this world has changed fundamentally, and the problems that we have cannot be solved by one nation and one nation alone.”
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Gordon Brown: Wiring a web for global good
- 16:43 Posted: Jul 2009
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Gordon Brown on global ethic vs. national interest
- 17:10 Posted: Dec 2009
Gordon Brown on the Web
Related Speakers
Conferences
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- TEDGlobal 2009