Gordon Brown wants 'orderly transition'

guardian: Gordon Brown has underlined his demands for a stable and orderly transition of power from Tony Blair.

The Chancellor refused to endorse backbench calls for Mr Blair to name the day for his departure from Downing Street.

But he said people would be looking to the Prime Minister to organise the transition.

Mr Brown said the vast majority of people in the Labour Party and the wider country wanted a "stable and orderly" handover.

"Because we are in a unique situation where the leader has said he is not going to stay on, then that stable and orderly transition which Tony Blair has said that he wishes to manage - I think people will look to him."

He told BBC's Sunday AM: "I think people will look to him, and it's not essentially a matter for me, it's a matter for him and the Labour Party." Link

db: It would be good if Blair is gone in the shorter term - before he can do more damage to the national interest through his obsequious relationship with the US. If he assists Bush in any future military adventure against Iran we are all damned.