from Popbitch, comes the following re David Blunkett:
Poor David Blunkett. The sniggering about his sex life and mounting political pressures seem to have got to him. We’re hearing tales of Blunkett bursting into tears in civil servant meetings and even in front of newspaper editors. Plus he’s taken up phoning journalists and giving quotes about his personal life and children, on condition that the papers say they come from “friends of David Blunkett”, only then to issue statements denying their veracity and demanding privacy from the press.
Thankfully for the PM, a dodgy share-dealing story conveniently turned up so David could be quietly “resigned”, rather than any more whisperings of a Syd Barrett-style meltdown emerging. And this would explain why he wasn’t allowed do the standard short TV interview with the BBC political editor that all other departing cabinet ministers seem to have to do.