George Bush and Gordon Brown in first meeting

[T_i_B]

Source: BBC

Chancellor Gordon Brown has had private talks with US President George W Bush, American officials have confirmed.

In their first face-to-face meeting, the two men spent 45 minutes at the White House discussing Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as trade liberalisation.

It is thought the meeting was unplanned and was suggested by Mr Bush, who knew the chancellor was at the White House talking to national security officials.

The BBC's Robin Brant said the meeting was the "strongest sign yet" of preparations being made on both sides of the Atlantic for the prospect of Mr Brown representing the UK on the international stage as prime minister.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6554561.stm

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For those of you who don't know, Gordon Brown is the man who will almost certainly succeed Tony Blair as British prime minister at some point soon.

[saltpoint]

1. I hope Mr. Brown is not as gullible as his predecessor.

[Greeby]

2. gullible nothing, he knows what he's doing

He signed the cheques for our part in this war without the slightest hint of protest

[Alexander]

3. I heard somewhere that he was less than thrilled about the Iraq War.

However Blair required him to publicly support it, since he was an official in the government.

I do not know if this is true. But I'm hoping we'll see a turnaround in the UK's foreign policy.

[Kagemusha]

5. Well he has had to eat a lot of bitter pills under Blair.

You put your enemies in as Chancellor in the hope of ruining them so that they can never take office for themselves, after all. It must annoy Blair greatly that his former leadership rival may still wobble into the top job.

[T_i_B]

7. "his former leadership rival may still wobble into the top job"

Actually, Gordon Brown is almost certain to succeed Blair as PM. Why? Because Blair has promised to step down this year (everyone thinks it will be after the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and local government elections on May 3rd) and there is nobody in the Labour party who appears able to offer a credible alternative to Gordon Brown. The Labour left is running two candidates and the chances are that neither will get the 44 nominations from MP's required to get onto the final ballot paper. Some ultra-Blairites have been trying to get the environment secretary David Miliband to run but that is unlikely to happen if he has any sense.

So to cut a long story short, barring a major catastrophe for Gordon Brown it looks like he will have a coronation as Labour party leader and PM.

[saltpoint]

6. I don't think we know how Brown will govern. We certainly had no clue

in the case of Blair.

One can learn from one's mistakes. One can learn from the mistakes of others.

Let's see how it pans out.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Brown reported pale and shaking after meeting

Heard muttering, "My God! My God!"