A review of the important book “Seven Ways To Change The World” by Gordon Brown
In these troubled times when so many are depressed and even in despair about our world, it is a rare pleasure to read a book that addresses head-on most of the major problems that we face, that describes the challenges so eloquently and offers solutions that are so practical, and that is imbued with such optimism and hope.
The author spent 13 years as Chancellor of the Exchequer and then Prime Minister in the United Kingdom and is now something of an elder statesman and the timing of his work could not be better coming in the middle of the most severe global pandemic for a century.
What are the seven problems that Brown addresses in a series of individual chapters?
- How can we combat global pandemics like Covid-19 and transform global health through a more equably-funded World Health Organisation?
- How can we revive the global economy in a way that achieves greater growth, addresses poverty, and avoids recessions?
- How can we resolve the climate emergency and achieve a zero-carbon future through measures like carbon pricing?
- How can we unlock the potential of the world’s billions through a revolution in education at each stage of childhood and adulthood?
- How can we achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 by reducing both absolute poverty and relative inequality?
- How can we abolish tax havens so that corporations and the rich pay fair taxes that enable governments to fund much-needed public services?
- How can we prevent nuclear proliferation and reduce the existential risk of nuclear war?
For all the merits of Gordon Brown’s tome of almost 500 pages, he needed a good editor or, if he had one, he needed to have listened to that editor. Too often, he is repetitive and meandering and every chapter could have been shorter and should have ended with a summary of his actual proposals.
The last two chapters – on the conflict between the USA and China and on the the need to turn nationalism to patriotism – are worthy but could have been saved for a different book.
However, the central message of the work – global problems need global solutions – may seem self-evident but his arguments are compelling and his proposals are both radical and realistic.