he will probably hand over as late as possible. he is still trying to leave some sort of legacy!!

brown will find it difficult to cope both with the legacy left by blair, and the fiscal mess he himself is creating.

what do others think?

Well Blair was certainly sending out the messages that he wanted to stay on for as long as possible this weekend. He's also saying that Brown would do everything the same anyway

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1681752,00.html

With an ever growing number of Labour MPs wanting to get rid of Blair then he looks quite vulnerable. A defeat on any of the major pieces of legislation this year could be his undoing.

Ironically, however, it is exactly this plan of reform that Cameron is going to back him up on. If Cameron follows through on his promise to back Blair's controversial reforms he can stay on for as long as he likes.

The question is when does Cameron want Blair to go. I suspect Cameron doesn't lose anything by keeping Blair there for quite a while yet.