Today I had fun. In among various socialisings, I found myself writing a posting over at Samizdata. Blair equals Nixon, that was the thesis. Never mind if that's true, that's not what Brian's Culture Blog is here to argue about. My point is that when I had basically finished the piece, I needed a nice little witticism to end with, a small, self-mocking raspberry to sign off with. Nixon. Thinks: Nixon in China.

I ended up imagining another opera called Blair in China, which is about the Kelly Affair, with Scarpia Campbell (baritone) and Queen of the Night Cherie (soprano) and Someone Lyrical but Weak Tony (tenor). The things is, Blair has just been in China, and while Cherie and Tony were there they actually were singing, so the opera thing really fitted the situation beautifully.

Apparently they were all siinging the Beatles' old ditty When I'm 64 so I guess it would have to be an extremely comic opera.

None of the Samizdata commenters so far have given Blair In China a second thought. What do such people as these know of opera? But the idea gave me a prolonged chuckle. It's seldom that things slot together so nicely, and a lot of fun when they do.