Daily Mail (UK): Tony Blair on holiday "despite intelligence briefings"

[Human Torch]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html

Blairs: All hands on deck
10:08am 14th August 2006

It was not just his job on the line as Tony Blair hung out the laundry aboard his luxury yacht. Wearing loud floral swimming shorts, the Prime Minister unhurriedly pegged up a few garments, then pottered about in the sunshine while his wife hung out a few more. It was just another day in paradise, bobbing along on the waves in the Caribbean, untroubled by the chaos back in Britain.

As thousands of British families suffered the continuing misery of delayed and cancelled holidays, the Blairs were enjoying theirs in the indigo waters of the Grenadine Islands 4,000 miles away.

When the blazing sunshine cooled sufficiently, it was a case of 'Anyone for tennis?' for Mr Blair. Smiling in sunglasses, the PM picked up his racquet and took a short dinghy ride from his catamaran to the island of Mustique for a game with friends.

Back home, where MI5 is warning of an imminent attack and airports are still in meltdown, there have been calls for the Prime Minister to return to Downing Street. A hundred Labour MPs have urged the recall of Parliament. There have been questions as to why Mr Blair went on holiday despite briefings from intelligence chiefs that their operation against the airline bomb plot was reaching a critical stage.