Blair - much ado about not much

Just when you thought that the name 'Tony Blair' had passed into history up he pops as the lead item on the BBC TV news. For a long time now it's been known that he would as likely as not join his wife as a member of the Roman Catholic Church. If he was still prime minister then I can understand that his becoming a RC could have been a piece of news of some consequence bearing in mind that his government have been passing legislation of considerable concern to Catholics. But in his present role as a peace envoy for the Middle East is his 'conversion' of such importance that it should be the lead item on the national news? Hardly, I would have thought. The announcement of holiday company 'Travelscope' going into administration causing more than 10,000 people to rethink their holiday plans this Christmas was surely a much bigger story.

I do appreciate how difficult it can be when the BBC's editorial panel discuss the order of news items to go out in a bulletin. They will seldom get it right for all viewers or listeners. But to make Blair's new religious allegiance, something that was expected, the big story of the day just seems barmy to me.