Blunkett

Am I the only one who thinks it is rather appropriate, given the course of his political career, for David Blunkett's new book to be serialised half in the Daily Mail and half in the Guardian?

I had a train journey to Nodnol and back yesterday, so read both newspapers (it took me longer than it should have done to realise that the extract from Blunkett's book was the same in both papers - I suspect I may be the only person who will have known that, given that the number of people who read both the Guardian and Daily Mail must be in low single figures).

It turned out to be an error to read the Guardian, because the Good Old Boy sitting next to me saw the fact that I was reading a story with a picture of Jack "at least he wasn't as bad as David Blunkett" Straw as an invitation to discuss with me the question of the niqab.

The vital importance of cultural tolerance and the strengths of diversity and multiculturalism, not to mention the rights of women to wear what they wanted, were amongst the points that he didn't make. I was only rescued from the enticing prospect of a three hour discussion on the dangers of the Islamic takeover of Britain by the good fortune of the ticket inspector discovering that his ticket was not valid.