This P.M. refuses to read the fine print

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MARCH 3. Ever seen a Prime Minister with a ``vision'' who wears glasses? Certainly nobody is going to catch Britain's ``visionary'' the Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair with his glasses on, though he admits that he can't ``quite tell the billions from the millions''.

Despite failing eyesight, which the 48-year-old leader attributes to his ``old age'', Mr. Blair has refused to let his vision be clouded by lenses even if it means skipping certain official obligations which require him to read the small print. According to a newspaper report, he has stopped taking briefings for the Prime Minister's Question Time in the Commons because he can't see the text. The Times which has had some insight into the P.M.'s vision thing says that though Mr. Blair acquired glasses over a year ago he is ``coy about stepping out in public with them'' and the only place he uses them is in bed.

Downing Street was reluctant to be drawn into why the Prime Minister prefers dodging the small print to wearing glasses with a spokesman simply saying that in time to come as he feels the need he will start wearing them ``like everybody else''; and then went on to play down The Times' concern whether the young Prime Minister's failing eyesight was a ``symptom of something more serious.'' ``I think it's fairly obvious he's OK by how much he's been doing recently,'' the spokesman said furnishing the newspaper with details of Mr. Blair's ``punishing'' schedule. But The Times still worried about the implications of having a Prime Minister with a failing vision and it wheeled in a doctor to comment on it.

Dr. Thomas Stuttaford promptly declared that Mr. Blair ``is no longer able to read standard print'' and said though he looked young for his age when he became Prime Minister ``his boyish looks have been ravaged by the responsibilities and disappointments of office and perhaps nights disturbed by Leo'', the Baby Blair. He certainly thought that Mr. Blair needed glasses - and not just any plain old thing but ``bifocals'' if he has problems with his distance vision as well.

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