Word: britain
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...There's certainly a lot of lost ground to be made up. France has languished economically, even as Britain has caught up and overtaken it. In 2002, according to O.E.C.D. statistics, the U.K.'s national income per capita exceeded France's for the first time, and since then the gap has widened. Brits, long the poorer neighbors, are now on average 10% richer than the French. That's one important factor feeding a deepening mood of pessimism about the future in France - a mood that Sarkozy is pledging to change...
...demanded of a leader? Wisdom? Integrity? Experience? Perhaps. But what really counts may be pubbability - an elusive X factor that makes voters want to share a pint with a politician. And on that front, Gordon Brown - the 56-year-old Scot who is expected to replace Tony Blair as Britain's Prime Minister this summer - has a problem...
...Still, in a country where being called Anglo-Saxon is often an insult, Sarkozy is openly admiring of the ability of Britain and the U.S. to create millions of jobs, and is promising to deregulate France's labor market in an effort to end what he calls the nation's "immobility." In a pre-election debate on May 2, he singled out the U.K., along with Ireland, Sweden and Denmark, lauding them for their success in combatting unemployment. That sort of attitude drew flak, with opponents painting him as an American-style neoconservative, but that didn't stop him winning...
...Exchequer, he has represented the U.K. in international financial negotiations for a decade. Back home, he has played a pivotal role in securing Labour's three consecutive electoral victories. His achievements - freeing the Bank of England to set interest rates; masterminding a clever strategy that avoided committing Britain to a speedy adoption of the euro; an impressive record of steady growth, low inflation and high employment - are so anchored in British life that they go almost unremarked. For all that, Britons seem surprisingly uncertain what manner of man it is who should soon move from 11 to 10 Downing Street...
...secure a fourth term for Labour - and a first elected term for himself - Brown must quickly woo back disenchanted voters by confronting a range of painful problems. Public discontent centers on Britain's role in Iraq and the government's perceived subservience to the U.S., as well as questions of probity raised by Labour's spin and an investigation into party fund raising. Brown won't officially start as Prime Minister until after the conclusion of a seven-week leadership contest. It should be a formality, given the absence of credible opponents, but champagne corks aren't yet popping...