"I don't think this is a situation in which the British people need me to articulate what they feel." Tony Blair's tetchy response to a BBC interviewer demanding to know why he didn't rush back from holiday to take personal charge of the tsunami relief effort showed how much he has changed. This, after all, was the man who felt the nation's pain as it mourned the death of Princess Diana. Mr Blair knew that he would be damned if he did and damned if he didn't. Those who are now criticising him for misjudging the national mood would have been among the first to have accused him of making political capital from the suffering of victims. Burned by his government's well-earned reputation for spin, Mr Blair pointedly added that actions were preferable to words. He forecast that the government would not be merely matching the £100m ($190m) raised by private donations, but would be spending "hundreds of millions" more as the needs of shattered communities become-clearer.
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