"Last Thursday the Daily Mail carried a photograph of Tony Blair on its front page, and several other ones on page three, showing him on a yacht while on holiday. The suggestion was that he was a little less svelte than we had thought, and than he might have hoped. The Sun also carried most of the same pictures, which were evidently taken by paparazzi.
Discerning readers will have noticed an oddity. The Mail did not say where Mr Blair was. The Sun only located him in 'the Caribbean Sea,' which is pretty extensive. On the one hand the papers were happy to run paparazzi pictures, yet on the other hand they were strangely bashful as to his whereabouts.
The explanation is that several weeks ago David Hill, the Prime Minister's chief spin doctor, wrote to editors of news organizations requesting that for security reasons details of Mr Blair's holiday arrangements should not be published until his return. The media have duly obliged. The Mail and the Sun could not resist carrying the pictures, but they observed Mr Hill's injunction, though the Sun may have come dangerously close to letting the cat out of the bag with its mention of 'the Caribbean Sea'."
This is more than a little odd. The paparazzi obviously know where the Prime Minister is on holiday and so does every newspaper in the land. Presumably it would not be difficult for Al Qaida to find out. On the other hand, the security blanket deprives us of the annual August ritual of crticising the PM for his depressingly eager willingness to sponge off rich cronies.
How unlike the holiday arrangements of our own dear First Minister who - as everyone knows - was on Arran recently. (Let us forget for the moment about winter breaks in the Mediterranean.)
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