So Blair has finally gone, and Gordon Brown will be his replacement. What to think about this?

Blair has clearly pursued some policies which would have fitted comfortably into Thatcher's agenda, and which I could never have supported. The approach to education is desperately flawed (and aimed at the Daily Mail readers). The NHS has been improved but risks going backwards now. The insanely reactionary criminal justice policies of the last few years (whatever happened to "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime"?).

The Iraq war will also forever hang around his neck, no matter what George Bush says in his support. Let's be plain. He lied to the public and to parliament in order to take us into a war without legal sanction, that he personally believed justified. So much for an ethical foreign policy. The death toll since (and I'm thinking Iraqi civilians, not western military personnel) has been such that if he and Bush are not prosecuted for war crimes on leaving office it will make a mockery of having a permanent war crimes tribunal. This is 'justice' determined by the powerful, not by any objective yardstick.

I think his original statement after the local elections, clearly intended to secure his legacy, that he had always done what he thought was right and followed his conscience is fundamentally flawed. I am not convinced that the duty of a leader in a democratic country is to follow what he individually believes to be right, but rather to build consensus and represent.

When I came to reflect on this with Deb, my verdict was that - knowing what I know now - would I vote for Blair again in 1997? Yes. Would I vote for him again in 2001? Probably. Would I have voted for him in 2005? No (and I didn't in reality in 2005 either).

And Gordon is already sounding like an interesting prospect. Most of his statements so far boil down to 'motherhood and apple pie'. Who doesn't want to improve education and the NHS? The devil is in how you go about achieving 'improvement'. I certainly didn't sign up for the way this government has approached education (Jessica has just gone through her year 4 SATS, being hothoused for them by her school who seem purely interested in maintaining their reputation. She got really stressed and upset. She's 8 for heaven's sake! Why is she even sitting tests?).

Final thought. I must say that the grand parade of Blair around the world during his final 6 weeks is really starting to annoy me. It seems to be an exercise in how many world leaders we can get to stand next to Blair and say how wonderful he is. Great for his ego, but I'm not sure that he should have the opportunity to parade his ego in front of us. It seems clear that he was determined not to go in the manner of Thatcher (ie. Ignominiously). Instead we are all expected to fete him out. To pick a phrase I last used 4 years ago "not in my name".

Another day at work. Struggling again to put some kind of EFQM process into action. There are 2 parts to my job. I have a small team to manage, and I have some considerative work looking at budgets. Both are going slowly. The team are very self-contained. Their previous HEO was very hands-off, letting them do what they wanted. I want to be much more involved, and 3 weeks in I'm starting to see the beginnings of friction over this. I've been doing 1-2-1's with them and getting some feedback that they find me a bit intrusive. On the budget side I'm getting busier, but it all still feels a bit like nugatory work, shuffling numbers around for my boss. I'm sticking with it. I went out with some friends from my old job last week, and as they pointed out it's often the case that after promotion the job feels less intense than the work you went through to get the promotion. My ex-Grade 7 was very complimentary about the length of time I'd been working out of grade.

On to the really sad news. Yesterday Rambo the hamster finally died. He was about 3 (which I understand is a good age for a hamster) and had not been well for a while. The day before when we cleaned him out, he was very dopey and tottered around a bit unsteadily without really opening his eyes. Put him back into bed and he just kind of flopped down without moving. He died sometime within the following 24 hours. Alex burst into tears. Jessica was initially fine, then asked when we could get a new on, then burst into tears. She's currently fluctuating between 'can I have a gerbil this time' to being very tearful. He's now safely buried in the back garden, and Deb and I are trying to persuade them that they don't really want another one...