Across the pond

Martin Kettle of The Guardian has been trying for 24 years to get an interview with Cherie Blair. At last he has been successful and the result is in today’s Guardian, where his is given a full page. He has laboured hard in searching the book she has just written and posing questions at the interview. But the best he can do to give his headline writers a chance is the news that she is a Socialist.

Not only that, she insists her husband is also a Socialist. Kettle’s interview contains this revealing nugget about that.

And your husband? (Kettle asked her) “I’m probably the only person in the country who insists my husband is a socialist.” What does he say to that? “He does his usual thing. He smiles and rolls his eyes and knows exactly what I mean.”

That quote says it all. And perhaps it was worth waiting 24 years for.