Come all ye faithful: just don’t expect a joyful and triumphant welcome

ANYONE who has read Alistair Campbell’s eponymous account of the Blair years knows Tony Blair is already in the running for sainthood, if only for his unremitting kindness to and patience with Campbell and the other infighting inadequates who surrounded him during his leadership of New Labour.

As of last Saturday however, if he is canonised, he will join the rapidly growing roster of Catholic saints, having officially converted to Catholicism just before the weekend.

When the news of his move away from Anglicanism came through, sceptics — agnostics and atheists, for the most part — raised an eyebrow or two, shrugged and moved on, their attitude a version of “whatever you’re having yourself, Tony”.