- 4 Aug 06, 12:51 PM
They are the words every child hates. "Sorry kids, the holiday's on hold for a bit, Daddy's got to work." We don't know how Tony Blair broke to his family but it's a fair bet they weren't too surprised.
It's not the first time - but perhaps may be the last - that the prime minister has delayed his date with a sunlounger. Last year he stayed on a few days to deal with the fallout from the 7/7 bombings. Yesterday Mr Blair had showed every intention of going ahead with his hols. "Whatever I may be doing in the next few days, the most important thing is to realise that, wherever I am, I have got full communications," he said. "I will be on the phone." This indeed is true. The idea that a modern prime minister can do what we all do and switch off the mobile the moment we hit the beach has always been a fallacy.
Long gone are the days when William Gladstone spent months away from Westminster chopping wood on his north Wales estate.
But some modern communications are not as good as others and it is that which has changed Mr Blair's mind. Late last night he had a conversation with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan which, I am told, convinced him to stay in London. Today, he was told, was going to be a crucial stage in the negotiations to establish a UN resolution that might just establish a ceasefire in Lebanon. And it was today that Mr Blair was expecting to be on an eight-hour flight across the Atlantic.
Yes, as we know, we can all make expensive calls from aircraft today. But the lines aren't that good and if Mr Blair were to take a scheduled flight, they would hardly be secure. Not only might some naughty spooks pick up the unscrambled conversation, but members of the public might be able to listen in too from across the aisle in first class.
So for the next few days at least, Mr Blair will sit by his phone and focus on the diplomacy. He's already spoken to the French President Jacques Chirac, other calls are scheduled for later. Spade work of another kind will have to wait.
Two quick points: if it were Kofi Annan who helped persuade Mr Blair to stay by his phone, what does that say about his deputy secretary general at the UN, Mark Malloch Brown, who two days ago asked the PM to take a backseat in the negotiations? And we should not forget that some newspapers and MPs have been attacking the PM for planning to go on holiday, leaving John Prescott in charge, while the Middle East burns. Mr Blair's decision to stay on in London a few days might ease some of that pressure and silence a few critics.
As ever, the prime minister is covering his bases.
