Blair backs Labour
And so it's goodbye from him. And it's hello again from him.
Alex Salmond and Tony Blair, that is.
Mr Salmond is making his final speech in the Commons today. He is, of course, stepping down as an MP in order to concentrate on his day job as first minister.
on domestic policy since standing down as PM three years ago.
And, you know what: he's backing Labour. Apparently, he thinks the Conservatives' sloganising is "vacuous".
For both, of course, the focus remains the economy and public spending. And there are some intriguing cross-border thoughts emerging today.
In Scotland, a coalition of forty charities wants a simplified and "fairer" welfare system, condemning the "impossible hoops" which claimants are obliged to leap through in order to secure "meagre benefits".
Election aftermath
In England, Ministers are considering options for levying charges in order to fund a universal system of social care.
After seeking consensus, the parties south of the border are now divided on the approach they would adopt. Scotland, you will recall, adopted free personal care.
Which issue do you think will be most salient in this election and in the immediate aftermath? And why?
Most probably, it will be the provision of care for the elderly - rather than wider benefits for the indigent.
Why? Because the elderly are more inclined to vote than the poor who can frequently be socially and thus politically excluded.
This is not, I stress, to decry or question the entitlement of either sector.
Merely to note that electoral politics, with its differential turnout and differential impact upon parties, is not always the best system for assessing competing claims dispassionately.
Spending review
(Although, remember Churchill's advice that democracy is useless - except when compared with every other system.)
Which brings us back again to the independent review of spending ordered by the Scottish government.
The chair, Crawford Beveridge, was setting out some of his thoughts on Newsnight Scotland last night.
The whole point of an independent review is to think the politically unthinkable - and Mr Beveridge appears to be in an iconoclastic mood.
Universal entitlement may have to be questioned in some areas, he argues.
It would be wrong to ring fence an individual service such as health care. (Politicians tend to do so because the NHS is substantially used by the elderly. For the motivation, see above.)
In the past, these were issues which intrigued and challenged Tony Blair - although now, as an ex-MP, he can perhaps afford to regard them with an intellectual detachment, despite his political intervention today.
In Scotland, these are issues which will undoubtedly arise again for the first minister.
Not perhaps in the short term. Not, substantially, during this election. But thereafter.
I'm 
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