The last act of a desperate Prime Minister — to bring back the Hunting Bill

As Tony Blair mulled matters over last week at Government House, Bermuda, where he and his family spent Easter at a very reasonable £27 per night, the future must have looked ghastly. It was not just the prospect of this weekend’s meeting with President Bush, tricky though that undoubtedly is. The Bush visit was at first envisaged as a modest attempt to give a boost to the US President’s now fading electoral fortunes. The Kerry campaign was as dismayed as Bush strategists were elated by this most irregular attempt by a British prime minister to tamper with the US domestic electoral cycle. It is puzzling that the British Labour party has not caused more trouble as Tony Blair continues to pander to the most right-wing US president in living memory. Blair, however, has taken certain steps not to inflame domestic susceptibilities. He has, for instance, left the Congressional Medal, controversially awarded him thanks to the intervention of the US President, unclaimed. Tony Blair is one of the very few British prime ministers to be gazetted with this honour. His failure to show up and collect it after almost a year, though prudent, can only be seen as a snub to his American admirers.

The vexatious trip to visit George Bush is by no means the greatest of Tony Blair’s troubles. This May and June now loom ahead like an obstacle course. Borders to the first EU accession countries from central Europe open on 1 May, doubtless soon to be followed by the first Romany caravans to trundle across English Channel, and with them a fresh immigration row. The technical handover of power in Iraq is scheduled for June, a moment fraught with hazard. Then there is the momentous issue of the European constitution, due to receive Tony Blair’s signature at Göteborg in the middle of the month.