The surest bet in British politics at the moment is that Gordon Brown - the man who's been in charge of Britain's economy for the last ten years - will become the next prime minister. Mr Brown's views on economic matters are pretty well established and internationally he's known among finance ministers for his grasp of detail and his intellectual rigour.

He understands the importance of Britain's traditional alliance with the United States, but will want to subtly distance himself from President Bush. When asked in an interview for Time magazine if the president was a man he could do business with, Mr Brown was rather non-committal. His natural allies are to be found among Mr Bush's political opponents in the Democrat party.

On Europe he's known to be sceptical about further EU integration and worked to prevent Britain joining the single currency, the Euro. He's barely disguised his frustration at European bureaucracy, but is thought to be an admirer of Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel.

In other areas he's been notoriously reticent about his preferred policies. In fact one of the main criticisms of Mr Brown is that throughout the last ten years he's been particularly adept at avoiding association with some of Mr Blair's more controversial decisions. Domestically Mr Brown is likely to portray his style as both more frugal and more transparent than before. Supporters of Tony Blair are suspicious that he'll take the party back towards its more traditional socialist roots. Opinion polls suggest that the British electorate is wary of Mr Brown and a claim by a former official that he is "Stalinist" in his management style didn't help. The public are unlikely to love Gordon Brown but they may respect him.