My (unpublished) letter to The Times, 10 May 2007:
Sir
What should a former Prime Minister with more than a decade until he reaches statutory retirement age do with his time? Given his wife’s earning capacity, he has no particular need of the lecture circuit.
I suggest he retrains and takes on a salesman role with an international charity such as Plan International or World Vision. Both encourage people to sponsor a ‘foster child’ in the developing world, which can be a rewarding and educational way of helping those less fortunate.
The sponsorship relationship is not wholly about money. Foster parents receive regular updates about progress of their sponsored child and of development projects in the locality.
Given the names in Mr. Blair’s contacts book, forging such relationships could have lasting significance. If leaders in politics and business internationally saw development not through the prism of large scale projects but through the life of an individual child the lives of both sponsors and children could be greatly enriched.