Is Cherie talking about Gordon? Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AFP/Getty Images
Cherie Blair's reported distaste for her neighbour at No 11 Downing Street long ago entered political folklore.
And it has to be said, if she really wanted to dispel the rumours of her loathing for Gordon Brown, Mrs Blair's choice of subject for a religious-themed talk on Radio 4 tonight could well have been different.
Speaking under her professional name, Cherie Booth, she is one of six well-known people contributing to Lent Talks, a series of reflections on life and faith to mark the traditional period of abstinence in the run up to Easter.
Ms Booth's talk is about restorative justice, and she calls for an expansion to schemes in which convicted criminals meet their victims to apologise.
Having spent 10 years sentencing offenders as a recorder, or part-time judge, Ms Booth says she wondered whether offenders felt sufficient remorse:
This impression has been reinforced when I have visited prisons and spoken to inmates. It seems that neither the court process nor the prison experience is helping them confront their behaviour or its consequences.
So far, so uncontroversial. But the interesting point is the biblical story Ms Booth has chosen to illustrate her point: that of Zacchaeus.
As those who paid attention in religious studies classes will know, Zacchaeus was a deeply unpopular man who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus en route to Jericho, and to the crowd's surprise was picked out and went on to repent his sins.
And the reason he was so disliked? He was a collector of taxes.
