Naughty nanny

Tony Blair has admitted to smacking his eldest children. But he has not ever hit Leo.

The interviewer Kirsty Wark persisted: "What, you do smack the younger one?"

Mr Blair, taken by surprise, responded: "No-no, no-no. It was actually the other way round but ... I think, look, this smacking ... I mean, I agree with what you just said, I think everybody actually knows the difference between smacking a kid and abusing a child."

Which most people do and is actually the exact arguement used by the people against the ban. It is also exactly not the what that New Labour's law says.

If he did ever now smack his kids then he could get sent to jail for 5 years, and so isn't the kind of thing you admit to in a national newspaper. Had he done so, admitted it, and been sent to court perhaps it would be better that he said he where just trying to kill Leo rather than castise him, and so only get 19 months rather than 5 years.