Tony still rules, OK

WOE, woe, woe. You might think the house is about to fall down to see the way the knockers go after Tony Blair. One thousand days in power and the Prime Minister has become a human coconut shy.

I try not to take sides politically, judging each issue on merit, but reckon it's about time someone in the neutral corner waved a red card under the noses of the hysterical "Get Blair" brigade

Day after day media pundits out to make mischief produce another batch of headlines meant to wipe the grin off his face and put the wind up the rest of us.

National Health Service? Bah! Couldn't cure an ingrown toenail. Gay teachers? They're taking over our schools.

On television, Jon Snow on Channel Four News has appointed himself Inquisitor-General, badgering any Government politician who dares come his way.

At Westminster, court jester William Hague trots out a succession of merry quips contributed by gag writers while keeping busy trying to bring the business of the nation to a standstill.

All in all, they tell us, the honeymoon is well and truly over for Mr Blair. There's even talk of an election, though the pundits forget to mention it isn't due for at least two years.

Nor will you find big headlines above a paragraph tucked away at the bottom of a MORI poll carried out last week. I found it quite illuminating: How would you vote if there were a General Election tomorrow? Answer: Labour 49 per cent; Conservative 29 per cent; Liberal Democrats 15 per cent; and Others 7 per cent.

In other words, halfway through his term, supposedly in big trouble on several fronts, the Prime Minister still commands a 20% lead over the Tories and looks certain to stay in power with a respectable majority for at least seven years.

No wonder he's smiling. For all the caterwauling, he's already in the record books as the Premier who proved more popular for longer than any other in history. The new arrival at No 10 will raise his stock even higher.

As a youngster aspiring to be a journalist, I watched Winston Churchill speaking from a soapbox in Woodford, Essex, in the postwar election of 1945. I have reported a dozen Prime Ministers since, including Harold Wilson's two terms, and I rank Blair second to none.

Churchill was in a class of his own, though his talents were best suited to war.

I rate Tony Blair for his decisive leadership. He took Labour

by the scruff of the neck when everyone wrote it off as unelectable.

So far, so good, but his first thousand days are a mere brushstroke on the canvas of history. Let's hope the finish is as good as the start.

Guilty until proven innocent?

DAVE Jones, kicked out as manager of Southampton last week, must be wondering ruefully whatever happened to the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

All the top brass at The Dell - and most of football - have said they feel sure Dave is innocent of charges he sexually abused boys while working in a Liverpool children's home ten years ago.

Speaking for the club's board, Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe said: "Everyone wishes Dave the very best. If any of us can help him prove his innocence, which I am sure he will, we will do that."

He then packed off Dave on a 12-month sabbatical - not that anyone expects him to return - and handed the team over to former England manager Glenn Hoddle.

The judicial system is to blame. If it moved any slower it would come to a complete standstill.

Dave had the charges hanging over him all last year and now must wait until November 27 before they are heard in court.

There's not much justice in that.

Tony saw window of opportunity

OUR window cleaner, Tony Page, has found a novel way around NHS waiting lists. He sets aside some earnings in his own medicine chest and negotiates directly with a consultant if the worst happens and he needs surgery.

Tony has already used this system for a cataract operation, spending £2,300 rather than wait 18 months for treatment on the NHS.

Now he's putting away funds for a second operation. "It beats expensive private medical insurance," he says.

A new national agency called Good Doctor Ltd has set up shop in Brighton to assist self-pay patients like Tony. For a fee of around £100, it will find a hospital offering the services of a suitable surgeon working at a pre-arranged rate.

There are already signs that private insurance companies themselves will use the service because of soaring costs in the private sector.

Good Doctor will not be fully operational before April or May, but director Michael Miller tells me it will give advice by telephone on 01273 234644.

English? It is 'eck as like

IT'S a funny old business, accent. Take Jane Leeves, the British actress in the popular American sitcom Frasier. For some reason they have given her a Lancashire accent.

Why Lancashire? Jane, who plays nurse Daphne Moon, grew up in East Grinstead and normally speaks pure Sussex.

The use of accents is just as crazy here, especially on the BBC. Many days you think you are tuned in to Radio Scotland.

There are those who stick to BBC English and we don't know if they come from Tintagel or Timbuktu. Who would have dreamed that plummy Peter Sissons is a Scouser who was at school with John Lennon and Jimmy Tarbuck?

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.