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There is nothing brisker about the British than the speed with which they despatch
defeated prime ministers.
On a day so rich in ceremony that the official tendering of the resignation to the
queen is still called the "kissing of hands", a prime minister is unceremoniously
turned out of the official residence at No 10 Downing Street within hours of being
turned out of office by the voters.
Last Thursday night John Major found out from the exit interview forecasts that
the Conservative Party had been routed in the national election. On Friday
morning he and his wife, Norma, left the home they had occupied for the last
six-and-a-half years for the last time.
While they sped down the Mall to Buckingham Palace, moving vans showed up at No 10
and took their personal effects off to their suburban home in Huntingdon, near
Cambridge. "Just as he loses his car, he will have to pay for the move, " said
Michael Gerson, head of the removal company that hauled out the belongings.
There were no tears, no V for victory gestures, no evident sorrow. Mr Major had
things in very British perspective. "I hope Norma and I will he able to get to
the Oval in time for lunch and then watch sonic cricket this afternoon," he said.
In a 30-minute conversation with the queen in the official audience room, Mr Major
formally offered his resignation. While they talked, a limousine headed for the
Islington home of the Blairs, who emerged Into a street full of cheering
neighbours and onlookers. Mr Blair and his wife, Cherie, did something that had
commentators making new comparisons of Mr Blair to President Bill Clinton. He and
his wife pressed the flesh along the police barricades.
The motorcade carrying the Blairs then snaked through London's streets and
boulevards until it was on the same Mall passage Mr Major had traversed less than
an hour earlier. Mr Blair entered the audience room where he was in line to be
asked to form a new government. When he emerged minutes later, he I was the Prime
Minister of Britain. The official Daimler was waiting to speed him to his new
home, No. 10 Downing Street.
No. 10's dispossessed tenant, Mr Major, has often said he feels most at home at a
cricket pitch, and that may explain the contented demeanour he brought to the Oval
in Surrey, south of London, on Friday afternoon. "Where else would 1 go on a day
like today, when the sun is shining?" he said.
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