The 'Guardian' has started serialising extracts from “Tony’s Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration”, by Adam Boulton, a TV journalist who is married to Anji Hunter, Blair’s “close friend and long-serving amanuensis” [and non persona grata with Cherie Blair]. Here is the opening paragraph:
“Tony Blair's earnings from British politics plummeted when he left parliament. As prime minister his final salary had been £187,611 per annum, plus the Downing Street flat, Chequers, and full administrative support. On quitting, he was immediately eligible for a pension of £63,468 a year and £84,000 towards the expense of running a private office. It would have been hard to make ends meet without the £4.6m book deal, or the £1m he earned from public speaking the first year after he left office…..” and so on and so forth.
Oh, dear! This has quite spoiled my day. My heart bleeds for the impoverished Blairs, and I shall be weeping intermittently for them over the weekend.
And I won’t be reading any more ‘Harry Potter’ books – not that I ever managed to get through any of the drearily turgid tomes. I see that J.K. Rowling has just given £1 million to the Labour Party. Presumably she will soon be something like a Dame.
O tempora, O mores!
