British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped down today, June 24, handing the reins of power (too much, BTW), to Labour (see Brits? we did the LaboUr thing for ye!) Party leader Gordon Brown.

Here is the piece, from the Associated Press:

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By ROB HARRIS
Associated Press Writer
MANCHESTER, England (AP) -- Gordon Brown, Britain's next prime minister, on Sunday promised a foreign policy that recognizes that defeating terrorism is as much a struggle of ideas as a military battle - a lesson he said was drawn from Iraq.

As he took control of the governing Labour Party from Tony Blair, Brown said Britain would "learn lessons that need to be learned."

Britain's future foreign policy will "reflect the truth that to isolate and defeat terrorist extremism now involves more than military force," Brown told a conference of party members in Manchester, northern England.

"It is also a struggle of ideas and ideals that in the coming years will be waged and won for hearts and minds here at home and round the world."

The unpopularity of the Iraq war, and Britain's role in it, have dogged Blair through the last years of his leadership. The woman elected Sunday as Brown's deputy, Harriet Harman, has called for the government to apologize for mistakes over the Iraq war.

Iraq had "been a divisive issue for our party and our country," Brown said, adding that he would strive to work for a Mideast peace settlement that "becomes daily more urgent."

Brown has dismissed claims he would seek to loosen ties with President Bush to appease rank-and-file party members angered over the Iraq war, saying it is in Britain's national interest to have a strong relationship with the U.S. president.

Brown, a 56-year-old Scot who has been waiting in the shadows to take over from Blair, received a ringing endorsement from the outgoing prime minister. Blair, smiling and measured throughout a speech to introduce Brown, said his successor and "friend of 20 years" had every quality to make him a "great prime minister."

"I know from his character that he will give of his best in the service of our country, and I know from his record as chancellor that his best is as good as it gets," Blair said.

The men vied to lead the party in 1994 - but Brown was persuaded to stand aside, sparking an often turbulent relationship at the pinnacle of British politics for 10 years.

Several hundred people gathered close to the conference venue to stage an anti-war protest and denounce Blair's record. "We are here to wave goodbye to the most dangerous and warmongering prime minister in modern British history," said Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop The War coalition.

Britain's Sunday Times reported Brown is considering a reversal of one of his predecessor's most contentious policies - planning to restore the right of protesters to demonstrate freely outside Parliament.

The move would scrap legislation passed in July 2005 that bans unauthorized protests within half a mile of Parliament.

The Independent on Sunday newspaper, publishing extracts of leaked government documents, reported that Blair's staff had made plans to demote Brown in 2005, but that the proposal was scrapped after he played a key role in that year's election campaign.

"They got into tension," outgoing deputy leader John Prescott told British Broadcasting Corp. television. Blair's Downing Street office refused to comment.

Brown and his new party deputy will likely face a first national election test in 2009 or 2010.

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Associated Press Writer David Stringer in London contributed to this report.