What do Virgin Radio and the New Scientist have in common? They’ve both been graced with Tony Blair’s presence over the past week.
Blair phoned Virgin on Friday (which by chance I heard) to ask listeners to support the Freeman Heart and Lung Transplant Association. Meanwhile, he is in the New Statesman this week banging on about the importance of scientific research (podcast here).
All very well, but it does rather suggest that his Operation Legacy that was leaked to the papers in September is very much going ahead. We’ve already had Blue Peter and no doubt Songs Of Praise is just around the corner.
My concern about all this is that it doesn’t seem to have very much to do with running the country, and yet it has everything to do with promoting the Labour Party and giving Blair’s own ego a boost. Yet are either of these two paying to have him go around the country as Prime Rentagob? Blair stands to make a tangible pile of cash out of boosting his legacy. If all he’s going to do for the next six months is remind us how wonderful he is, and leave the actual job to Gordon Brown, then it really is time he did the decent thing.