As the UK lays in waiting for Mr Brown to take over from Tony Blair, with the latter’s reputation dwindling further still as he dawdles his way out of office, one can’t but think that he’s failing a major test of leadership, that of taking his leave. The setting down of power, to put it in his own words. And with that he adds himself to a growing group of former crowd-pleasers that just hung on too long. Calling time on a powerful career must be a bit like calling the top of the market, pretty difficult by recent accounts. The longer the leaving the dodgier the judgement? May be. Even championship agents of change may well resist it for themselves. They are human after all. Lord Browne, Mrs Thatcher, Percy Barnevik and even Jack Welch. Their good names took plenty of damage late in the day after years of lionizing and enviable reputational equity.