Goodbye, Tony

Tony Blair has been replaced by Gordon Brown as Prime Minister of Britain.

Gordon Brown entered No 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister for the first time this afternoon promising to be a force for change.

Prime Minister Brown quoted his old school motto, "I will try my utmost", as he posed for photographs with his wife Sarah.

Mr Brown sounded unexpectedly nervous even though he had finally achieved his lifelong ambition to lead the Labour party and govern the country.

He had been driven to Buckingham Palace - after being cheered out of the Treasury, his political home for the past decade - to meet the Queen at 1.52pm today, just minutes after his predecessor Tony Blair had tendered his resignation.

The tightly-choreographed transfer of power came after an emotional final appearance at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons for Mr Blair, who brandished his P45 and told MPs: "That is that. The end.''

He received an unprecedented standing ovation from MPs, and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, was in tears.

After his audience with the Queen, which lasted almost an hour, Mr Brown went to 10 Downing Street to put the final touches to his Cabinet and make introductory telephone calls to foreign leaders.

One of his first conversations was with George W Bush, a Downing Street spokesman said.

I can't say as I have thought too well of a lot of the internal things going on in Britain under the labor government, but Tony Blair at least stood tall for trying to fight the war on terror and for democracy. That counts for a lot.

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1. Public Secrets: from the files of the Irishspy — Wednesday, 27 June , 2007 @ 11:07 am