Gordon Brown: Comic Stylist

It's nice to know the Brits can maintain their sense of humor in the middle of a global economic collapse. Then again, they can joke about that whole dissolution-of-empire thing, too. Finally.

Here's British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yukking it up before the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday in New York, as reported by The Post's Glenn Kessler:

Brown said that he got a piece of advice from his predecessor when he became chancellor of the exchequer.

"One of my predecessors sent me this note with three envelopes included inside it.

"And he said, 'Look, things are going to get bad; then they might get worse, and then they might get terrible. If things get bad, open the first envelope. If they get worse, open the second. And if they get really critical, open the third.'

"And so as you do, the first crisis comes, you open the envelope and you get pretty good advice: 'Blame your predecessor,'" which drew laughter.

"The second crisis comes," Brown continued, "and you get quite good advice. It says, 'Blame the statistics,'" which elicited more laughter.

"And then the third crisis gets worse and worse. So you open the envelope, and it says, 'Start writing three envelopes to your successor,'" which killed.

-- Frank Ahrens

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