Good manners

The first minute and a half of Tony Blair's speech today:

"Thank you. Oh please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. Welcome, thank you for that. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your hard work. Faith. Courage."

He then went on to thank all of the significant cabinet members by name. Well, he left out Gordon Brown, but I'm sure that wasn't deliberate.

They say that good manners cost nothing. The exception appears to be my patience when it's Tony Blair saying "thank you". By the eleventh "thank you" I wished I could have been there to throw a potato or something at him. And what was he saying "please" for? It sounded like he meant "please stop clapping, it's dreadfully embarrassing", but he was clearly absolutely loving it. Maybe he actually meant "please carry on clapping, I'm absolutely loving it."

Oh, he went on to say some more things afterwards, but by that time I'd had enough. In any case, I hardly deserved such effusive thanks from the Prime Minister, since I was one of the many Cambridge residents who decided at the last election that I'd had enough of our Labour MP and successfully voted her out. See Tony - you're not the only change makers around here.