No doubt everyone else noticed the report that the Govt. was again interfering with the exact details of the ban on tobacco advertising, exactly as a large donor to the Labour Party from the Formula One racing world would have wanted. I’m just trying to work out why Blair loves F1 so – clearly he does, more than would be justified by the fairly paltry sum involved or even the number of engineers the teams employ in southeastern marginals. I have a little theory, which I expounded a while ago, back when the blog was young and Alistair Campbell had just been rousted from Downing Street. You can read it here: Campbell, Tony Blair, and the Rolling Stones.
Essentially, my thesis is that our prime minister belongs to a particular character type found among British, educated, middle-class men who feel their educated, British, middle-classness somehow detracts from their masculinity. Such types tend to overcorrect, seeking out self-reinvention and the approval of more macho characters. This was what drew Blair to the whisky swiggin’ tabloid hack, Campbell, and it’s also why he likes spooks so much. It was probably also this that led him to form a band, which is a classic response in itself.
And I suspect it’s what draws him to the pitlane bosses like Ecclestone and Eddie Jordan.