What Tony Blair really needs is a stiff drink

By the time Parliament rises for the Christmas recess, the Prime Minister will have endured 18 consecutive days without a day off. This stretch embraces two uncomfortable working weekends, the first of them to the fly-blown Nigerian capital of Abuja for the Commonwealth conference, an event made more fractious than usual by the Zimbabwe squabble.

The Prime Minister left Abuja before the conference finished in order to return to a family funeral in Scotland. The hazards of this complicated journey included a 3.15-am arrival at Glasgow airport. Then it was back to London and the Downing Street reception for the all-conquering England rugby XV. This event was notable for the sharp contrast between Tony Blair’s prima-donna style of politics and rugby football, emphatically a team game. Downing Street suggestions that the Prime Minister should pose alone with Jonny Wilkinson were reportedly rebuffed by the RFU, which preferred that he should be photographed with all the players or none at all.