I should know better

I never had much time for John McCririck, self-styled racing pundit and eccentric, but he hit the nail on the head at Robin Cook`s funeral, attended not only by friends and family, but by the great and good of New Labour - with one exception.

He said to the assembled congregation: "What an impressive attendance we've all got. All of us have changed our plans to show our respect and affection for Robin and for Gaynor and the boys and the family.

"But there is just one exception to that - and that's the nation's leader, the prime minister.

"Now Margaret Thatcher, of course, she attended Ted Heath's service.

"I believe the prime minister's snub to Robin's family, to millions of New Labour voters, demonstrates a petty vindictiveness and a moral failure, opting to continue snorkelling instead of doing his duty. What a contrast with Lady Thatcher."

Of course there was no love lost between them (though it probably didn`t reach the dizzy height of the legendary hatred of Heath and Thatcher.) But the deliberate snub is so Tony- as is the total inability to realise how badly it would play.

On the whole it would be as well if a man who is incapable of assessing a simple situation like that correctly went sooner rather than later.