Sunday, June 24, 2007

Gordon Brown named Prime Minister

From the BBC:

Tony Blair has handed the leadership of the Labour Party to Gordon Brown at a special conference in Manchester.

He personally thanked Tony Blair who he said had "made Britain stronger, more tolerant, prosperous and it has made Britain fairer".

He also praised John Prescott and former leader Neil Kinnock for leading the party "out of the wilderness".

He described Britain as a "country of rising aspiration," saying voters had told him they wanted a "higher class" of public services "tailored to individual needs".

But he told activists: "The party I lead must have more than a set of policies, we must have a soul."

Victory speech

He pledged not to return Labour to the past - and said he wanted make education and tackling the housing crisis his top priority.

Justice minister Harriet Harman beat favourite Alan Johnson to win the contest by the narrowest of margins.

In recent interviews Mr Brown insisted he would press on with efforts to create a Cabinet "of all the talents" - despite apparent snubs from two non-Labour recruits.

He also said he had learned his lesson about "top-down" government and has pledged to involve ordinary people in his decisions.

He told BBC News the public needed to be fully involved if big challenges like climate change were to be tackled. more

The immediate question (and one for which I have no answer.) is what changes will be made to the UK's Iraq policy. Since Iraq effectively sunk Mr. Blair's ratings I doubt Mr. Gordon will allow the same to happen to him.