Moving on

It could be possible that yesterday is the last time that Howard Flight will top the news headlines. From the looks of the stories on offer this morning, it is probably saying something that if Jamie Oliver can get to the top of the news with the government's wholly electioneering pledge to increase the money spent on school dinners then the media probably have got bored with Mr Flight.

Meanwhile, Tony Blair will today face the "media" - aka. Sky News. It's remarkable how he can find the time to do these things, given that if anyone asks him when the election will be, he will still tell them that he has not yet decided. The announcement in theory should be a matter of less than a week away now, and it will be nice to get this properly underway. I'm getting the distinct impression that everyone's pre-election campaigns are rapidly running out of steam.

Of course, the TV interviews today will throw off more heat than light as Blair repeats the same old arguments we have all heard before and will doubtless be fed up with by May 5th. But it probably is a sign that he wants to retake the initiative. It's amazing how people may be tempted to vote against Blair, but his appearance on TV is always a fantastic reassurance to them and suddenly they're back on the New Labour "project" as if they had never been unfaithful in the first place.

Tony Blair is probably right when he talked about this being a "relationship" with him. It was a sickening speech, but when it comes to people's reactions to him in the country, it pretty much sums up the mood well. I could never trust him again - I think of myself as being something of a fool for ever trusting him in the first place - but there are still a lot of people on the edge out there who are up for grabs.

Coincidentally, most of them seem to live in the key marginal constituencies...