New Labour, new baby

It seemed so certain, just a few weeks ago, when Cherie Blair went public with her desire that her husband should take a couple of weeks' paternity leave, that there would be no way Tony Blair would be able to avoid taking on the mantle of the new man. After all, his government misses no opportunity to praise the virtues of family life and it has changed the law to require employers to allow parents time off to be with their children at critical moments.

Now, however, Mr Blair has told The New York Times that he will not be putting family before work after all, because being Prime Minister is "not that kind of job". It would be easy to charge Mr Blair with telling other people to do one thing while he does another, but it was always unrealistic to imagine that he was just going to switch off the mobile and refuse to make any decisions.

Being in charge of the Government of the United Kingdom is a pretty special kind of job. Just look at the agenda this week: our soldiers are doing a dangerous job in Sierra Leone, the peace process in Northern Ireland is just about back on course, and manufacturing in Britain is in crisis. Balancing family and work is about choice; Mr Blair has made the sensible one.