In the end, he was merely a politician expanding power and increasing the debt.

I came across some notes to myself from back in 2002.  The reference was to The Economist, 20 April, 2002, page 58 from the Bagehot column.

. . .  the chancellor's five principles of fiscal management - transparency, stability, responsibility, fairness, and efficiency - as well as the two rules that Mr. Brown has laid down to inform public spending decisions: that the government should borrow only to finance net capital spending and that over the economic cycle the ratio of public sector debt should not exceed 40%.

Gordon Brown was the Chancellor at the time in Tony Blair's Labour Government from 1997-2007.  Brown succeeded Blair and became Prime Minister in 2007 but only lasted to 2010.  Despite being a Labour Chancellor, he came across as a finance technocrat and instituted massive regulatory expansions to better control and direct the economy, and nominally with better principles guiding spending as outlined above.  

For all that increase in economic regulatory power, when the Great Recession hit in 2008, the British economy was hard hit as was Brown's government in turn.  All the reforms were ineffective in terms of controlling deficit spending and steering the economy to a soft landing.  

Transparency, stability, responsibility, fairness, efficiency, borrowing only for capital spending, capping the public sector debt at 40%!  All great ideas and promises.  Promises not delivered on.  The ratio of public sector debt currently stands at 100%.

Brown came across as a rock-ribbed Scotsman of strong fiscal rectitude.  In the end, he was merely a politician expanding power and increasing the debt.