Tony Blair – remember him? – set aside his distaste for the "feral beasts" of the media on Wednesday to guest edit the London Evening Standard. Apparently it's five years to the day since he handed over the keys to No 10 to his Scottish next door neighbour. How time flies. His arrival on the Standard's editorial floor in former owner Daily Mail & General Trust's Derry Street HQ (does Paul Dacre know he's in the building?) prompted a flurry of tweets from the paper's hacks, with Joy Lo Dico reporting that "a reverential hush has descended" (quite the opposite in Dacre's office when he found out, Monkey wagers). Sarah Sands weighed in with the not-at-all-gushy: "Tony Blair doing rather too good a job editing the Evening Standard today. I am getting anxious ... ." However, columnist Richard Godwin appeared less smitten: "Tony Blair: firm handshake, strange glo''al-stopped transa'lan'ic accent, charismatic when speaking, slightly haunted look when silent." Shortly afterwards, it became apparent why: Blair had only gone and dumped his column in favour of an old mucker. Still, it's not every day you get big-footed by Bill Clinton, eh Richard? One to tell the grandchildren.
