The Staggers: Gordon Brown

Not since the Second World War have the eyes of the world been so fixed on watching events unfold in Europe. There is a palpable sense that history is being made in front of us. Will the leaders of the old continent finally get their act together and solve the sovereign debt crisis - or will their inaction push the global economy off a cliff? This crisis has been going ... read more

Gordon Brown had started to campaign to become the next head of the IMF even before Dominique Strauss-Kahn's career imploded on Sunday. His article in the current edition of Newsweek (written before DSK's downfall), is a transparent job application:

The IMF showed a few months ago that if the world worked together, up to 50 million new jobs could be created – millions of them in ... read more

David Cameron has made waves this morning with his hint that he would block any attempt by Gordon Brown to become the new head of the International Monetary Fund. With classic English understatement, he told the Today programme that Brown "might not be the most appropriate person to work out whether other countries around the world have debt and deficit problems".

He added: "Above all, what ... read more

It's a year to the day since the first TV leaders' debate, the event that transformed Nick Clegg from the little-known leader of the Liberal Democrats into the head of a revolt against the Labour-Tory duopoly. At the start of the election campaign, journalists were fond of asking, "Who's that man with Vince Cable?" It was a question we never heard after 15 April 2010.

"Cleggmania" would not last, and the ... read more

Tony Blair's office has just released the first extracts from his memoirs online and the selection includes a fascinating account of why Blair refused to sack or demote Gordon Brown.

Blair's explanation is a mixture of the pragmatic and the principled. He argues that sacking Brown as chancellor would have severely "destabilised" the government and that his ascent to the office of prime minister "would probably ... read more

Poor Gordon Brown. The day that his first major interview since the election came out also happened to be the day that the first huge news story for weeks broke. What timing.

The interview, in today's Independent, focuses (at Brown's behest) on his constituency work in Fife. The ex-prime minister, who comes across as relaxed and happy on his own turf, ... read more

The "news" that Nick Clegg demanded Gordon Brown's head as the price of a Lab-Lib coalition will come as a surprise to almost no one, though it's the first time we've had this story confirmed by one of the negotiators.

But the Times's serialisation of Peter Mandelson's memoir The Third Man (an important test case for the paywall) still contains much of note. Top of ... read more

It was good to see Gordon Brown respond to claims that he's been spending stints at an Edinburgh hospital for "psychological reasons" with the wit for which he was once renowned.

On a visit to a school in his Kirkcaldy constituency, he told reporters:

The only times I've ever been in hospital were for the birth of my children, for my eyesight, ... read more

The last letters that Gordon Brown wrote from inside No 10 were to Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. A friend of the former prime minister said that they are "two prisoners of conscience and two people who have inspired him hugely".

Here are his words to the Burmese leader.

This is one of the last letters I write as Prime Minister and I want it to be to you, to ... read more

With the possible exception of his Sky News counterpart, Adam Boulton, the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, looked like the most shocked man in Britain following Gordon Brown's Downing Street announcement yesterday afternoon.

"Audacious" was the word Robinson used on the television and on his blog, but you suspected something stronger was going through his mind. Since last Friday, Robinson has barely deviated from a line that has David ... read more

Financial Times: Brown to quit in bid to win over Lib Dems

 

Guardian: Brown plays last card

 

Telegraph: A very Labour coup

 

Daily Mirror: For the greater Gord

 

Daily Mail: A squalid day for democracy

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Following Gordon Brown's extraordinary, game-changing statement, here is a guide to how a progressive alliance could be constructed. Bear in mind that as Sinn Féin's five MPs refuse to take their Commons seats, a government needs 321 seats for a de facto majority in the House.

Progressive alliance

Labour: 258 seats

Liberal Democrats: 57 seats

Social Democratic Labour Party: 3 seats (Labour's Northern Irish sister party)

The Alliance Party: 1 ... read more