The Fool of April

Tony Blair has "sought to dampen down" - wonderfully dead journalese in the Telegraph - talk about a rift between himself and Gordon "I honestly don't want you to be happy" Brown. He does this by implying that the reports of this rift were April Fool jokes, comparable to the story that he was having the door of 10 Downing Street painted red. This is yet another brilliant example of Blair's grasp of virtuality, because, of course, how would we know whether he's wrong? I can find out if the red door is an April Fool by going along to Downing Street; a rift, however, is impossible to confirm or deny. It has a quantum quality to it, both there and not there depending on who is looking and how. I am coming to think that Blair really does live in a parallel, virtual world. He so instinctively both defers and appeals to the comforts of the unreal at every possible opportunity.