HOWARD KURTZ rounds up reactions to Tony Blair’s step-down announcement. It seems to me that it comes with less a bang than a whimper. Perhaps that’s because he’s leaving on his own, but I notice that libertarian Britblog Samizdata hasn’t posted anything on the subject yet. You’d expect them to be cheering.

UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive: At Samizdata, Perry de Havilland writes: “I do not really give a damn because it is actually not that important. Glenn expects us to be cheering, but why? About the prospect of Gordon Brown running our affairs? Sorry but that is nothing to cheer about and I cannot really see that this will make a great deal of difference to government policies.”

And further thoughts from Paul Marks: “Mrs Thatcher was interesting. Mr Blair (like Mr Major) was just another statist politician.”

Well, aside from the general benefits of government turnover — which come into play more strongly when there’s a change of party anyway — I don’t think the difference will be huge.