Marina Hyde on the significance of Tony Blair’s new career as a celebrity banker…

Just like the Beckhams, the Blairs have the separate autobiographies, the sports foundation, the overplayed ambassadorial roles … even the fashion gaffes. At this rate one half-expects the planned launch of fragrances on the Beckham model – Intimately Blair for him, and Intimately Blair for her. Pending satisfactory sales, they will be followed by Intimately Blair Nightz.

The Beckhams are the ultimate private citizens with lucratively attention-seeking public lives, yet deliciously untrammelled by standards commissioners and the like. What very modern models for a second act they are, and we must long for the day on which their lives and the Blairs’ finally collapse into one another, as both couples are photographed enjoying a free holiday together on the JP Morgan corporate yacht, an image so surpassingly heartwarming it will bring immediate peace to the Middle East and the wider world.