Prime Minister Brown

[DanaC]

Today Tony resigned, and the new Leader of the Labour Party was invited to form a government. So, enter stage left, Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Don't know if he's hit your radar much on other side of the pond, but he's quite a different kind of personality to Blair.

I went to a hustings event during the Deputy Leadership challenge, and Brown was there. At that point of course he'd been the only one to get enough nominations to stand as Leader and was therefore the Leader-elect. Now, despite the fact that I am quite cynical about such things, I was surprised at how impressive he was close up. It was a fairly safe setting, mainly Labour activists and trade unionists, so he was relaxed, but he had serious magnetism when he entered the room and circulated.

Be interesting to see what direction he takes things in. Last night, just as speculation on the future cabinet was reaching a crescendo, a once prominant member of the Conservative opposition crossed the floor and defected to Brown's Labour Party.