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Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday blamed the global economic crisis on “white people with blue eyes” and said it was wrong that black and indigenous people should pay for white people’s mistakes. Speaking in Brasília at a joint press conference with Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, Mr Lula da Silva told reporters: “This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.” He added: “I do not know any black or indigenous bankers so I can...

“This crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing,” charged the brown-eyed, bearded socialist president [Lula of Brazil]. As the brown-eyed Brown grew a whiter shade of pale, Lula hammered the obvious point that the poor of the world were suffering in the global crash because of the misdeeds of the rich. “I do not know any black or indigenous bankers,” said Lula. He also told CNN he would press this theme at the G-20 meeting in London this week....

I'm boycotting Brazil nuts. The top nut in Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (big enough to be known simply as Lula, like Beyonce or Madonna) told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the world's current economic crisis was caused by "white people with blue eyes." Waving his finger at Brown, Lula, a socialist, said people in poor countries shouldn't have to pay for the mistakes of people in rich countries. "It is a crisis caused and encouraged by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes," he said, "who before the crisis appeared to know everything, but...

Gordon Brown yesterday surprised commentators by refusing to rule out military action against Iran. “I firmly believe that the sanctions policy that we are pursuing will work, but I’m not one who’s going forward to say that we rule out any particular form of action,” the new British Prime Minister told a news conference. While Brown had previously seemed to follow his European partners France and Germany by playing down the idea of using force against Tehran, his line on Iran yesterday was compatible with the more hawkish position of President Bush. What are we to make of these maneuvers?...

Ex-PM at centre of 2008 banks rescue suggests taskforce of leaders and health experts Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The former Labour prime minister, who was at the centre of the international efforts to tackle the impact of the near-meltdown of the banks in 2008, said there was a need for a taskforce involving world leaders, health experts and the heads of the international organisations that would have executive powers to coordinate the response. A virtual meeting of...

... One of the occupational hazards of this line of work is that at a certain point you've seen it all before. For example, not many people outside the United Kingdom retain any memory of Gordon Brown, Tony Blair's woeful and short-lived successor as prime minister. Mr Brown led the Labour Party to defeat in the 2010 election. Here's what I had to say about it at the time: The official "defining moment" of the campaign was Gordon Brown's unguarded post-photo-op dismissal of Gillian Duffy as a "bigoted woman." Mrs. Duffy, a plain-spoken working-class granny and lifelong Labour voter, had...

'Up to 1,500 Iraqis are to be airlifted to Britain after ministers agreed to grant sanctuary to the interpreters who worked for our forces. In a multi-million pound operation starting in April, the translators and their families will be flown here in groups of 100 every fortnight until the autumn. They will be transported in military planes to an RAF base in the South-East where they will be processed by immigration officials. They will then go to a hotel west of London for a few days before being resettled in two northern cities. There they will receive free housing and...

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an impassioned call Monday for Labour Party supporters to vote to stay in the European Union, amid nervousness in the “remain” camp that it is losing momentum ahead of next week’s referendum. Brown, who governed from 2007 to 2010, said Britain should “lead in Europe” and not leave it. Polls suggest the June 23 vote on whether to leave the 28-nation bloc could go either way. The “remain” side has stressed the economic uncertainty that would be triggered by quitting, while the “leave” campaign has focused on unease about the large scale of...

The US President is weak, the Spanish leader is dim, the German Chancellor is clinging on to France’s coat-tails and the head of the European Commission is irrelevant. That, at any rate, is the world according to President Sarkozy, who has spent the week airing his unvarnished opinions of Barack Obama and an array of international politicians — abruptly ending France’s honeymoon with the US and needling Washington on several strategic issues. In the latest in a stream of accounts from the Élysée Palace, Mr Sarkozy was quoted yesterday as telling an all-party group of MPs that Mr Obama was...

LONDON — A veteran anti-war campaigner known for his unapologetically socialist views has won a landslide victory to lead Britain's opposition Labour Party — an outcome that delighted supporters and dismayed others who never imagined he could be elected. The overwhelming support for far-left lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn, 66, was one of the biggest shake-ups in British politics in decades. His win Saturday marks a sharp left turn for his party — and will significantly challenge the tone of mainstream British politics, which is now dominated by Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives. "It's certainly the most high-profile position an overt socialist...

Campaigning in Renfrewshire, he said the nationalists want an SNP vote in the general election in order to "force" a second poll. Launching the SNP's "women's pledge", Nicola Sturgeon said this election was "not about independence". Meanwhile the Lib Dems set out plans for green laws and the Scottish Conservatives focused on jobs. As the penultimate weekend of campaigning got under way, SNP leader Ms Sturgeon joined female activists and actor and campaigner Elaine C Smith in Glasgow to launch the party's women's pledge, which commits the SNP and its members to delivering policies that promote equality... As part of...

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has not uttered one word in Parliament for a year, it emerged today. Although he has kept his counsel in the House, Mr. Brown has been jet-setting around the world over the past 12 months. He has declared 28 trips abroad on the MPs’ register of interests—many of them linked to his humanitarian work. And since he left Downing Street in 2010, he has received £2 million ($3.2 million) in fees and expenses—all of which has been plowed back into his public and charitable activities. …

Gordon Brown: Euro Crisis Is Even Worse Than Lehman Nick Jardine Sep. 16, 2011, 4:34 PM Brown says things are worse now than they were in 2008. Former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown says that the current financial woes are worse than they were in 2008, reports the Telegraph. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China, Brown said he believes that the world's economy could fall into a 1930-like slump if matters continue in the same vein. He told the audience: "The European banks as a whole are grossly under-capitalised: they have liabilities far in excess of American...

Diplomacy: Well, it's out — the invitation list to the biggest U.K. royal wedding in three decades. A Mustique bartender merited an invite, but it seems the Obamas did not. It's pretty obvious the Brits are sending a message. Sure, the royal wedding is a ceremonial affair, and news that the U.S. president and first lady weren't invited to the nuptials of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 30 won't rupture normal diplomatic relations. Still, it's eyebrow-arching, given that U.S. presidents have always been invited up till now. And the slowly leaking list of people who did get invited...

Tony Blair uses his new book to expose Gordon Brown as a manipulative figure who lost a winnable election by abandoning the principles of New Labour. The former prime minister’s memoir discloses that a “maddening” Mr Brown effectively blackmailed him while he was in No 10. He suspects the then chancellor of orchestrating the investigation into the cash-for-honours scandal. Gordon Brown and Tony Blair at a Labour Party rally The pressure on Mr Blair to step aside became so great that he admits he may have become reliant on alcohol as he faced coup attempts from Mr Brown’s supporters. He...

Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama $16,500 (£10,000) worth of gifts during a US visit, in return for a selection of DVDs. The value of Mr Brown's gifts, a pen and holder made from the wood of an anti-slavery ship, along with two biographies of Winston Churchill, was disclosed by the US State Department on Tuesday. Mr Obama, by comparison, gave him a boxset of 25 classic US films such as Citizen Kane and ET.

One of Barack Obama’s aides jokingly suggested that his wife Michelle should be photographed kissing Gordon Brown in the White House to disprove claims that the President had killed off the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US. The remark was made by Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama’s chief of staff, when the President was accused of snubbing no less than five requests by Mr Brown for a face-to-face meeting during a visit to the US last year. The then PM was reduced to grabbing a 15-minute chat with Mr Obama in a kitchen at the United Nations New York HQ...

Britain has sunk into a pit of debt which is five times deeper than previously feared, with the country now owing the equivalent of £200,000 per household. Instead of the £1 trillion reading normally presented as the nation's debt, the UK is in the red by closer to £5 trillion... a broader set of ONS figures taking in Government liabilities show unfunded public service pension obligations could add another £1.2 trillion and liabilities in unfunded state pension schemes a further £1.35 trillion. The sum is almost four times the size of the UK's total gross domestic product in 2009...a more...

The British election campaign didn’t do much to catch the attention of Americans (at least not until after the vote), but one little item feels pertinent – although it attracted remarkably little attention even across the pond. In Sherwood, Nottinghamshire, a lady called Phyllis Delik received a postcard from Gordon Brown’s Labour Party. On one side, there was a photograph of a woman suffering from breast cancer saying “It’s the sort of thing you think will never happen to you.” On the reverse, there was a question: “Are the Tories a change you can afford?” – followed by a warning...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – After three rocky years as prime minister, election defeat has forced Gordon Brown to consider his future and speculation is swirling it might include a stint at the helm of the IMF. After being battered by financial meltdown and backbench revolts Brown may not be looking for a new job quickly, much less one that includes tackling Europe's debt crisis. But little over 24 hours since the Scot left office the chattering classes in London and Washington are already awash with rumors he may be interested in leading the International Monetary Fund. Like his predecessor Tony Blair...