Bye, bye

The papers are full of Tony Blair's impending departure. Retrospectives abound. Most are either tendentious or reverential, some are stupid, all are tedious. The arguments for and against have been rehearsed and are stale. The long wait for historical assessment begins.

I do not intend to add to this guff. Instead, I would like to simply record my deep sense of loss, even grief, over the death of John Smith.