Brown to take over in Britain
LONDON — Removal men packed furniture and boxes into a van outside Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street home today as he prepared to leave office and hand power to Treasury chief Gordon Brown.
The incoming leader, who for many lacks the charisma of his predecessor, must woo Britons by shaking off the taint of backing the hugely unpopular Iraq war. With promises of restoring trust in government, he is planning to sweep aside the Blair era after a decade waiting for the country's top job.
Brown, a 56-year-old Scotsman, will seek to head off a challenge from a revived opposition Conservative party. Polls already point to a "Brown bounce," with one survey putting his Labour party ahead of its rivals for the first time since October.
Few expected the dour former finance chief to be greeted with public enthusiasm. In fact, Brown's ascension was widely seen as a political gift for the more youthful Conservative chief David Cameron.
But Blair's last full day in office brought an unexpected present — the defection of a Conservative legislator to his Labour party. The move put Brown in bullish mood and he will now weigh calling a national election as early as next summer.
President Bush paid a final tribute to his ally and will later call Blair's successor with congratulations.
"Tony's had a great run and history will judge him kindly," Bush told Britain's The Sun tabloid in remarks published Wednesday. "I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle. He's bigger than that."
Bush is thought to have been instrumental in winning Blair his new role as envoy to the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators. Irish leader Bertie Ahern said Blair told him his new role would be "tricky," but said he wanted to focus on peacemaking.
"He believes if you have hands-on, persistent engagement then you can have real progress," Ahern told Ireland's state broadcaster RTE.
After a final weekly session taking questions from fellow lawmakers today, Blair will take the one mile ride with wife Cherie from his Downing Street office to Buckingham Palace in a limousine.
Once he tenders his resignation, Brown will be summoned to Queen Elizabeth II's private quarters, where she will formally confirm him as prime minister during a closed-doors audience.
