Brown or Blair? Pass the sick bag

By Simon Hooper for CNN

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Uncomfortable political allies for more than a decade, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's rivalry continued in the pages of the British press on Thursday with many papers unsure whether to weight their coverage towards the outgoing or incoming prime minister.

On the front pages at least though, new prime minister Brown finally had the upper hand after 10 years in Blair's shadow.

"In, out, shake it all about," said the Sun, showing a split picture of a triumphant Brown and a departing Blair.

"I have heard the need for change... now let the work of change begin," the Daily Telegraph's headline read, quoting from Brown's first speech on the Downing Street doorstep.

"We've made it. We're in," said the Guardian, while the Times went with "The new tenants." All three papers chose a photo of Brown and wife, Sarah Brown, smiling broadly.

But the Daily Mail struck a different tone over the same picture, with the headline "Bye, Tony. Missing you already."

Blair, whose relationship with the media has not always been cordial and who earlier this month lambasted British journalism's "feral" instincts", largely received a sympathetic send-off.

As several papers noted, the standing ovation from all sides that followed his emotional farewell performance in Prime Minister's Questions was an almost unprecedented honor for a departing prime minister.

"Clapping is taboo enough, but for MPs of all sides, left and right, to be on their feet was stunning to behold," wrote Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian, observing that Blair had once again "stolen the story from the coming man."

"If the Tories had clapped Margaret Thatcher in 1990, which they did not, Labour MPs would have sawn off their own hands rather than join in. What does it say of Blair that he was able to win the approval of the entire house? Perhaps that MPs admired his undeniable political skill; perhaps that, thanks to his oft-mentioned courtesy, they simply liked him."

But others chose to contrast Blair's instinctive political skills with the more dour, serious tone of his successor.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson, an opposition Conservative lawmaker, decried Blair's final parliamentary appearance as a "blubfest of nauseating proportions," adding that he had been "feeling quite chipper about the political extinction of Tony Blair."

But, Johnson continued, "It was after only a few seconds of Gordonian gurning and grunting that I felt almost suffocated by the earnestness of his utterance. There was such a grimness, such a solemnity, that I instantly missed Tony's gift for catching the taste of the moment, for the joky self-deprecation, for the combination of passion with a sense of optimism and uplift."

Meanwhile the Daily Mail welcomed the arrival of Sarah Brown as "first lady" in place of her often controversial predecessor.

"With little awareness of the sneers she was provoking in the wider world, she basked in her new celebrity status, relished freebie holidays abroad and filled Number 10 with make-up artists, stylists and various new friends from the world of light entertainment," wrote Sarah Sands of Cherie Blair.

By contrast, Sarah Brown "has a quiet self-possession that will serve her well in her new role. She does not avoid the limelight because she is bored or sulky, but because she does not need it. The greatest lesson that Cherie Blair has taught Sarah Brown is that discretion is the best part of valour."

On a day that all papers agreed had been momentous, only the Daily Star had the nerve to stick resolutely to its tabloid guns, choosing to lead on its front page with the story of a failed "Big Brother" romance.

But even the Star could not resist passing comment on the day's events deeper in its pages, offering readers a fold out "Tony Blair sick bag" and summing up thus: "Tony out, Gordon in, blah blah whatever."

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