Can Mark Malloch Brown outsmart the Chinese and the Yanquis in Africa ? ...er ... No

Oliver Marre had a real and overlooked scoop in the Observer on Sunday November 12, 2006

Brown's found a new friend ... called Brown

Naturally, there will be changes if Chancellor Gordon takes over from Tony Blair in the coming months. ...

... Gordon Brown, unsurprisingly, intends to import minds more excited about fiscal matters. Step forward Mark Malloch Brown, deputy secretary general of the UN.(Marlborough, Magdalene College Cambridge and the University of Michigan)

A senior source close to the Chancellor tells me that he has been in earnest discussions with Malloch Brown and that a peerage and a significant role in a Brown cabinet is on the cards.
Malloch Brown will step down as deputy secretary general at the end of the year. In that role, he has been far from uncritical of Tony Blair and, particularly, the Iraq war. Just like Gordon.

On the other hand, he's been a regular champion of the government's international aid programmes. Just like Gordon.

Previously he has been involved in the (very Brownite) UN's development programmes and worked at the World Bank. Intriguingly, he was also invited to put in an appearance at October's Conservative party conference.

'Mark's speech was one of the oddest given,' says my source. 'He basically used it to tell the Tories how brilliant the government's record had been on aid and development.'

MM Brown was knighted in the 2007 New Years Honours and on Thursday received, a peerage, took Ministerial office and became a Privy Councillor.... busy year so far.

He has a hard row to how in Africa. We wish him luck