Tony Blair's appointment as special envoy of the Israel-Palestine Quartet is not yet official, apparently due to stalling by the Russians, so a little embarrassment ensued at this morning's Number 10 briefing due to a comment from Bertie Ahern --
Put that Bertie Ahern had said this morning that the Prime Minister had confirmed with him that he had taken the job and that he expected it to be tricky, and could we [No. 10] confirm this, the [PM's Official Spokesman] replied that Bertie Ahern was someone with whom the Prime Minister had the utmost respect, but we had to wait for the outcome of the Quartet meeting instead.
It can't be judged from the briefing summary whether the spokesman's facial expression during the exchange confirmed his self-description as a "dour Ulsterman."
UPDATE: Blair's appointment is now official so Bertie's indiscretion only lasted a few hours. It came in an interview with RTE --
"I spoke to him about this on Friday night when he told me that he was going to take it ... He thinks, and I believe he is right, that if you have hands-on, persistent engagement you can make real progress,"
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