Tony Blair's jets

The BBC reports that Tony Blair is to get not one but two jets for his use and that of Her Majesty (and others).

"They are expected to cost around £12.3m a year - about £2.7m more than the current arrangement (of chartering)." Staggering. This is totally unnecessary in my view. It is emblematic of our President Blair's extravagant self-importance.

Apart from anything else the current cost of Prime Ministerial travel over the last few years has been inflated by TB wanting to be his own Foreign Secretary. So they're comparing the jets' cost with a skewed baseline. During the run-up to the Iraq misadventure, Blair was zooming all over the place, prompting jokes about "Prime Minister visits Britain" headlines (previously heard about Churchill) on his return.

TB only has another year as PM. I despair at the thought we are going to have to put up with another excessively high-flying Prime Minister after that.