pakistan to be a fight against terrorism to be effect. >> the situation in pakistan is more complicated in that there is al qaeda, there's taliban, and taliban spreading talibanization. >> two the most powerful men in the world. now they can speak freely. this is "piers morgan tonight." between the u.s. and u.k. has been showing some strains lately. is it working? joining me is a man that knows a lot about the special relationship, former prime minister gordon brown. thank you for joining me. >> pleasure. >> president obama and prime minister cameron wrote a piece in which they described the relationship as not just special but as essential and went on to say the united states and britain stand together. people and people around the world become more secure and more prosperous. what do you say to that? >> indispensable relationship. that's how i would put it. it is based on volumes. not just based on history and common actions we have takening to. based on a shared approach to the world that survived libber zpi dignity of the individual and fairness. it is about opportunity. you know, i think that the -- new special relationship of the last 50 years because -- after all, you kicked us out 200 years ago the americans. kicked the monarchy out of ameri america. for the last 50 years, what's happened? when you have almost every single battlefield of europe and every single symmetry, war symmetry, american and british soldiers lined side by side, part of that amazing sacrifice of what we call the greatest generation, that's what is seem meanted our relationship. when an american soldier dies british people mourn. when a british soldier die it is american people mourn. i think that is at the heart of why we are so close, this join shared sacrifice that was made so many years ago for the liberty of the world. >> when you were prime minister, did you get a sense that britain was special to the american administration? or is that just a form of words these days? how important are we? >> when britain and america work together and i think it is now britain as part of europe and america work together, will's very little we cannot do. the if you look at the success of nato and ending the cold war europe and america work together. when europe and america are with britain right at the center of europe don't work well together, then things start to go wrong. i think that -- the indispen-- managed to move forward on frayed. if europe and america but particularly britain and america were able to work more closely together, you can see more results that i think work to the benefit of the world. the lesson over the last 60 years is when we work together in britain's -- bridge really here you can actually achieve so much. >> president obama's been in britain this week. created quite a storm. charismatic guy and island as well. amazing scenes there. how do you think he is doing as president? >> i think he is a great president. it is not only, you know, historic presidency. the first black president. first one who has shown that america can repair all of the wounds of civil rights and the -- civil war. he's actually a person of great personality, great intellect, very caring and also i think very reflective. i think he -- he understands america's role in history and he understands where america wants to be. it is a huge change from 50 years ago. i would say telling some of the story a day or two ago, john f. kennedy came to britain. to meet mcmillen, then the prime minister. they had a great relationship. one older and one younger. john f. kennedy arrived. harold wilson at down sting -- mcmillen was still asleep. he -- he slept in. they had to -- john f. kennedy had to sit on downing street reading his newspaper in the waiting room for half an hour. >> is that right? >> if that happened now or -- on any presidential visit, you know, the second nature of these visits, if anything goes wrong like that it would be a national outcry. >> david cameron would have to resign. >> it would be -- then you have the -- where harry truman inv e invited atley across to washington. they were deep in the negotiations that brought about nato and -- march ever marshall plan and everything else. truman was invited to the washington residents of the british ambassador. i think it was near christmas and so they spent the time singing. and -- played the piano. harry truman did the singing. >> did you ever do this? president bush. president bush and you rent a piano? >> i don't think he would appreciate my singing. president bush and i would talk a huge amount about history. he was -- very avid reader of history. the image that was presented of him in america and around the world is quite different from his real-life where he read -- talk to you about history books, he read about european history. when i we brought him to down sting and had a dinner for him and we discuss who'd he would like to have invited, you might have thought he would have wanted some of the celebrities. he wanted a group of historians so he could talk to them about american and british history and enjoyed that evening. >> given events as they have been unfolding in the middle east in particular, do you think president bush's legacy will improve over time. obviously he was a very unpopular president. both in his own country and britain. >> there is a big decision that was made in 2001. and really we are seeing it played through with the death of osama bin laden. how great was this terrorist threat? i think bush, people will look back and say president bush, george w. bush, did make the right decision to recognize that this was a major threat to the -- civilization of the world that it had to be taken on. the next set of decisions are controversial. i don't think you can doubt the first decision that when you have the -- bonds in new york, planes going into the -- buildings, and -- you have america trying to recover from that, it -- had to be the right decision to say we are going to take this terrorist threat on. i think president bush will be remembered actually for taking that terrorist threat on. now, in afghanistan, he obviously did the right thing because he kicked al qaeda out of afghanistan. perhaps we should have spent more time following that through and -- equally at the same time we now have osama bin laden is no longer alive. al qaeda is in disarray. if you look at what president obama's achieved, half al qaeda leadership wiped out in recent years, as a result of the efforts of the americans, it was a historic decision. >> was the big mistake for president bush and obviously you heard over here as blair, was the war in iraq given all we now know, was that a mistake, do you think? >> no, i don't think so. i think you have to distinguish between the -- rightness of the case and the u.n. and the whole world supported the rightness of the case. and then the follow-through. follow-through became very difficult. in the modern world you can't just have a just war. you have a just peace. if you cannot plan through a reconstruction that -- leaves a country in a position where it can build for the future, quickly, then you have a question what was going on so i think when -- all these inquiries are finished people will conclude the justness of the case against sad ham hussein was proved by unwillingness ever to halt the united nations resolutions but should have been par better planning of what lay next or what could lead next before things happened. >> there has been one of those state dinner here with the master and queen and members of the royal family. huge royal wedding recently in britain as well. is part of the special relationship in britain and america connected to the royal family, do you think? i think the royal familiar sly incredibly popular in america. i was speaking in america and it was an economic speech. i think when they were -- asking me what i was going to say, preferred if hi given the speech about the royal family. i think it is about britain and our heritage and about the fact so many people in america descended either britain or from ireland. >> you were -- heavily involved in the princess diana memorial fund. princes and members of the royal family. when you saw what happened to princess diana, who you knew, and i knew, for that matter, we saw the attention that she got and relentlessness of it leading to the terrible events of her death, do you worry about the attention now and -- william and kate? new superstars of the british royal family? >> i think it was a tragedy what happened to princess diana and i did not know her really but i do know that the pressure on her family and on her children has been immense. i think it is remarkable tribute to these two young men that despite all the publicity and attempts to catch them out and everything else that they have grown up to be a very good -- citizens, very good members of the royal family. i think it is -- true to say prince william has been special and -- place in the affections of people not least because of the successes of his wedding. >> obviously covering it now, incredible success, the wedding. to me it felt like we were getting a huge re-energizing of the british monarchy. particularly around the world. did you get that sense? >> i think that was important. you have to look forward as well. it is going to have been to be a modern monarchy in the future. now i think our alliances is about economic cooperation and it is also about cultural cooperation. it is also about how we deal with some of the other problems in the world, climate change. i hi we can be more successful in the future. europe and america and africa working together that would be something i think could achieve a lot of -- >> when we come back, we will talk about the imf, scandal that's enveloped the organization. what it means for the global economy. what you would do now to really restore the global economy back to where it was precrisis. a lot of times, things are right underneath our feet, and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. right now with the british former prime minister gordon brown. huge events going on involving the imf. you knew dominique strauss-kahn very well. he worked alongside him for a long time. what did you make of the scandal? what does it mean for the imf in terms of the global economy? >> personal tragedy. dominique strauss-kahn was steering the imf through what you might call the difficult post-crisis period where you are trying to avoid a world depression. and -- very successfully, i think, g-20, imf, world bank came together to do that. you know, the next stage is quite different. and the next stage is about this decade. americans must look at this decade with some insecurity because unemployment is high and youth unemployment is high. living standards are not rising. and america can't consume a huge amount more. it has to export to the rest of the world for its prosperity. the same problem exists for europe. you need some global growth arrangement, some expansion of trade, expansion of growth. that would suit america and europe and china. that's the first challenge. second challenge that dominique was starting to face is we are not certain that we have financial stability. nobody can say we have done enough yet to avoid a future crisis. we have the other problems because we have the middle east and africa. have you massive unemployment. you have 35% of young people in egypt out of work. >> you also have a massively higher population. this is -- being in that lower age bracket. have you many more young people and many of those are unemployed and feeling -- also they are getting information to social networking to a better world, aren't they? creates its own problems. >> absolutely. expectations and aspirations are so high what the experience is and we know economic discontent started again in egypt. even with the change of regime. we know that there's real problems because young people feel they haven't got the opportunities. we know that you need to sea about 50 million jobs in the middle east, north africa to meet that population. and you know that if they don't get jobs there, then this migration will spread across to europe and cause social problems there or become a security problem in africa. that's why you need the sort of major initiatives that i think the g-8 and 20 would have to look at. need something equivalent, immediatele eastern and north africa development bank will make its business to reduce the unemployment and build the infrastructure and investment as necessary. it is a major project for the world. >> how important is the imf to the global economy? >> you see, for 50 years, the imf was dealing with national problems. if a country, argentina, brazil, indonesia, britain in one case, fell into problems, imf would take action to bail it out and to -- rescue it and say what it had to do. now you are dealing with something quite different since the financial crisis. you didn't -- what you might call a global problem. cannot be solved without a globe am institution or global action. financial instability affects all of us. you cannot have financial stability now in one country and if you have instability in another country. >> imf become more important. >> it is -- got to coordinate the approach to financial stability. it has to make possible greater global growth and trade. otherwise america and europe as i say who have to export will lose out. and, of courses, has this responsibility to the poorer countries with the world bank. >> given how important the imf now is, these are big blows -- guy running it, has been involved in this huge scandal. from all i hear -- interested in your observation on this, he was very good at the job. >> dominique strauss-kahn is an old friend of mine. we worked very well together when he was finance minister. i think what happened in the last three years, have you the g-20 which president obama helped create. global growth plan which is imf is hoping to administer. have you trade negotiations faltering. have you the climate change that's never actually happened. so your international -- whether the imf or g-20, world bank, going to become far more important in future years. it is to the benefit of america and countries like britain we have strong international institutions that carry legitimacy. >> people listening to you, mr. brown, saying what you say perfect guy for the job. why don't you take over the imf? >> i was actually -- i was -- i was in charge of the selection possibles when i was chairman of the imf committee in the early 2000. this is a long prolonged selection process being -- it is being -- administered, if you like into a few days. you know, the whole of the world has to be consulted. you can't have one country without listening to another country and another country. you will get in the next few weeks views from india and china and africa and from -- >> if you were offered the job would you take it? >> i don't think it comes to that to be honest. i'm not interested in running a campaign for a job. i'm more interested in saying what the proper agenda is for the future. you know, i was -- offered the job on -- one occasion previously. i think the issue for me is -- how you can get the world to work together. this candidate, whoever does it, has to be able to bring consensus of the world together. i think that's going to be very important. >> when we come back we will talk about the world since you left office. necessary necessarily an economic view. just what's happening to this planet of ours. ] a word of warning to piggy banks... pants pockets... and anyone, anywhere who would hide our precious coins. we're coming for what's ours. maybe you didn't hear. but dimes, nickels, even pennies have power now. because the volt charges for about a buck fifty a day. making most commutes gas-free for just a handful of change. so we're taking it back. all of it. we have some driving to do. the 2011 chevrolet volt. it's more car than electric. until the combination of three good probiotics in phillips' colon health defended against the bad gas, diarrhea and constipation. ...and? 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[ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. the former british prime minister gordon brown. talked earlier about the economics of the world. you were at the forefront of saving the world from this financial crash. in terms of -- the world generally, markets immediate morals. and it struck me that actually what the financial crisis taught us was probably the world could do with better moral leadership. there was a kind of fundamental breakdown, moral guidance, i felt for many countries, many people in positions of power. would you agree with that? >> i think we have these big problems that require people to take a longer term view than just their own self i shall individual or national interests. have you climate changes. have you terrorism that's a huge problem and have you the issues of security with this mass migration that could take place any time of large numbers of people from the middle east from north africa and africa. you have these economic problems that arise from financial instability which is a market failu failure. what are the values we share in common? can you build your institutions on a stronger basis? i think you would then conclude that there had to be greater cooperation between the major countries. you would have to have a -- not just g-20 type organization. you have to have a constituency system that every country felt it was represented. and you would have to build a number of better -- institutions where people could find that at least they were addressing the problems we faced. >> has the internet eroded political power in