The downside of change
Change and newness bring with them youth and inexperience.
On the day reality strikes Team Brown with a vengence, they may ponder that if this bomb plot had been identified three days ago they would have been led by a prime minister with 10 years experience of terrorist threats - not least the plots of 7/7 and 21/7 - and a ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Secretary who could draw on his experience of Northern Ireland, Defence and a year at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Office. Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith will be having to learn very fast.
A day after this reshuffle I am struck by the inappropriateness of the phrase "first amongst equals" for Gordon Brown. There are few equals round that Cabinet table. Not only does he not, like Tony Blair, have "a Gordon Brown" - he doesn't have a John Reid or even a Charles Clarke.
In recent years Mr Brown's always leant heavily on the two Eds (Balls and Miliband) and Douglas Alexander. Today's a reminder of the fact that though he has appointed no deputy prime minister he will be more and more dependant on the three "grey hairs" who walked into Cabinet together yesterday - Alastair Darling, Geoff Hoon and, most of all, Jack Straw. Straw's spells at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and Foreign Office and his confidence in parliament will surely make him the deputy prime minister in all but name.
UPDATE, 1420: So the new home secretary is to be backed up by Falklands war hero and former head of the Navy, Admiral Sir Alan West, as her new deputy responsible for security. West was the man who insisted that Nelson be remembered properly and pushed for major celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
Speaking of Nelson he said : "We love Nelson because, like real heroes, he was not perfect. He could be vain and he had his flaws - he even suffered from seasickness. But he was brave and inspired the deepest loyalty, and when it mattered he got it right." Let's hope this last bit applies to West himself.
'Jacqui who?', many outside Westminster might say. 
Ed Balls: Brown's right hand man for a decade will get a new Department of - what Brown calls "my passion" - Education.
Finally, for now, let us not forget Alastair Darling - the soon to be new Chancellor. A man so decidedly low key and whose appointment is so predictable that it's easy to forget he is one of the biggest hitters in this government. Darling prides himself on taking the heat and the noise out of politics and just getting on with the job. Doesn't he realise that we journalists have jobs to do?!!!
Tony Blair planned to say nothing as he left Downing Street for the last time, but his carefully laid plans were once again torn up by his wife. As Mrs Blair got into the Jaguar to leave Downing Street for the last time, she looked directly into the cameras just feet away from her and spoke - not whispered, not mouthed - the following: "Goodbye. I don't think we'll miss you" (watch for yourself 
He knows Mr Brown because he has served on the Treasury Select Committee, so the two men already had some sort of relationship, and I'm told they bumped into each other a few months ago, got chatting, and that Mr Davies talked about how he admired one of Mr Brown's speeches... and Gordon Brown, ever with his eye on the political opportunity, invited Mr Davies in for a longer chat.
I recently spent a couple of days there with Mr Brown talking to him about his upbringing, his home, his schooling and the the rugby accident which cost him the sight in one eye. (You can watch the film I made about this by clicking 
After Gordon Brown comes "NOT Gordon Brown". The man who's occupied Number 11 for the past decade is engaged in a systematic effort to prove that he'll be different - not just from Tony Blair, but from his old self. Just watch today's ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ interview with him (which you can do by clicking 
Just been interviewing Gordon Brown along with my fellow ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ editors - John Simpson (world) and Evan Davis (economics) and World at One's Martha Kearney. Gordon Brown promises an EU referendum "if necessary" - which, of course, begs the question who decides what's necessary. The answer, naturally, is Gord himself.
That though is precisely the offer which was made to Paddy - now Lord - Ashdown by the man who'll be prime minister in less than a week's time. The offer was made yesterday without the knowledge of Sir Menzies Campbell and after the Lib Dem leader had publicly declared that no member of his party would serve in a Brown government.
There have been talks about it but there will be no Lib Dem bottoms on the seats of ministerial cars - not in the near future at least. So says Ming Campbell (hear for yourself 
Just look at what he or his ministers have said and done in the long long run up to this week's EU summit.
Brown-ites first floated the idea of doing to the NHS what their man had done to the Bank of England last autumn. However, they were met with a fierce backlash. Blair-ites warned that they'd be creating the equivalent of a nationalised industry board which might resist reforms and budgetary control. Backbench MPs expressed their fears that they'd be unable to seek political redress for NHS problems in their constituencies. 
What is intriguing is that, as is often is the case, these trips are unannounced and we've known for some days but in this particular case we've been asked to keep this secret for many hours. Indeed, it wasn't meant to be until Gordon Brown had left what's known as the Green Zone - the relatively safe international area which is heavily protected in Baghdad - that we could give details of where we are.
During his visit, it's likely that Prime Minister Maliki will want to know whether Gordon Brown will repeat the words of Tony Blair, that it would be wrong to cut and run from this country, and that he's determined to make the same stand as the current prime minister has made and believes that victory in Iraq is crucial.
We were in the Cabinet Room. The desk calendar showed that there were just 21 full days left for Tony Blair in Downing Street. Appropriately enough a military band could be heard through the windows playing "Beat the Retreat" as Nick Danziger took pictures for a magazine feature on the Blair Years. The PM insisted he was working harder than ever - his mind focused on today's G8 summit and the EU summit at the end of the month. He impatiently waved away a question about how he felt knowing that he'd watch the next G8 on the telly.
On climate change he was, once again, the optimist, the man who regards the glass as half full not half empty. Critics of President Bush's recent speech didn't realise when they were winning, he said. The Americans would not bypass the UN process. They would agree to a long term goal for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Would they do this at the G8 I asked. Of that he could not be certain. This is not one of those summits where the "sherpas" - the officials who do the negotiating before their leaders get involved - have done a deal. There is much work to be done. 
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