Westminster blog

It is, of course, entirely co-incidental that Gordon Brown has announced his plans for the future today: just hours after Tony Blair, the yin to his yang, published his autobiography. (Which is apparently flying off the shelves).

Brown will be doing lots of charity stuff – for free – including education work for Africa. The rather sober note struck by Mr Brown is surely not a deliberate attempt to remind the public that he, unlike some, is not a jet-setting millionaire?

He says he will be doing public speaking in the USA, but this will be to fund his charitable work. He has set up something called the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown to pay for staffing costs.

(Incidentally, we asked Ed Balls if his old mentor could come back to the shadow cabinet doing international development; not in a million years was the gist of his response.)

Here is the Press Association:

Gordon Brown announced his plans for the coming months today, including working to increase global access to education and boosting internet use in Africa. The former prime minister will join the Global Campaign for Education’s High Level Panel on Education for All and will work to secure economic justice in Africa by helping to increase internet access. He will also join the board of the World Wide Web Foundation. The initiatives reflect the priorities for Mr Brown’s global public policy work in the future, his spokesman said.

Mr Brown’s spokesman said: “Gordon Brown’s global work will focus on those areas where he believes he is best placed to make a difference and these new initiatives are a sign of his determination to do that. Gordon will continue his long association with international efforts to get every child in school by collaborating with Queen Rania of Jordan on education goals globally and from today he is joining the Global Campaign for Education’s High Level Panel on Education for All as a convener. Gordon will also continue his life-long commitment to securing economic justice for Africa by taking forward a programme of work on increasing internet access in Africa. And Gordon has responded to an invitation from Sir Tim Berners Lee to join the board of the World Wide Web Foundation, which seeks to advance the web as a global medium that empowers people to bring about positive change. Each of these positions are pro bono and Mr Brown will not accept any remuneration.’