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Genius, tax thief, visionary, bottler... pundits describe Gordon Brown as any and all of these things. But Piers Morgan has dined, drunk, debated and gossiped with him for more than a decade ... and in this article written for GQhe reveals what the Prime Minister is truly like.

Drinking buddies: Piers Morgan and Gordon Brown share a pint and a joke at the Labour Party Conference in 2000

I've enjoyed the company of the Browns, two people whom I have been proud to call friends for 12 years, and even more proud now to call Prime Minister and First Lady (even if Sarah cringes every time I call her that).

And few politicians have inspired quite as much character appraisal as Gordon Brown, or so polarised public opinion.

He is, depending on which day of the week it is, a genius or a halfwit; a visionary or a bottler; a financial wizard or a cunning stealth taxer. He's a brooding, intense, psychologically flawed, over-serious, demented workaholic.

he's a

charming bloke with a massive cerebral mass