So the grand event that we've all been waiting for nearly a year to happen has finally happened: Tony Blair has announced that on June 27th he will leave 10 Downing Street, retiring as Prime Minister. For the rest of the day news programmes were extended to unbelievable lengths, reports were made on the speech made and the legacy - and he's not even gone yet!
What amuses me about all this is that the media are treating all this as if he's actually retired already. Who knows what could happen between now and June 27th? We've all seen how quickly the world can change in a single day.
What upsets me about all this is that the rest of the day's news last night was treated to ten minutes of quick coverage from Fiona Bruce. Yes, this is a "momentous" occasion - note quotes - we've never seen this kind of thing happen before, well, not since the Thatcher era. But there are other important things happening. Interest rates went up yesterday: now, I'll be the first to admit I know diddly-squat about interest rates, as do many people I'm sure, so half a minutes talking about them does nothing to explain the situation for me. And then there's the hunt for little Madeline in Portugal, though don't get me started on that. Still, it's an important story, important enough to interrupt the weather report on BBC News 24 with a Portugees Police Press Conference, but not so important for the Ten o'clock news on BBC 1.
Then, straight after the news, we had a choice. Either go to BBC 2 for a specially extended edition of Newsnight about Tony Blair, or stay tuned to BBC 1 and watch a special edition of Question Time about Tony Blair. Oh goody; bed calling, me thinks.
Mind you, I suppose at least this time the news is relevant. The last time I saw something like this happen to the news it was for the verdict of Michael Jackson's court case. That was slightly more of a fiasco then last night, though that may be hard to believe!
Laters.
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