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Telegraph - Cherie Blair’s memoirs set a bad example, by Mary Riddell

Cherie Blair’s memoir, published today, is “a Cinderella fairytale of an ordinary Liverpudlian schoolgirl who was transformed into a style icon and cover girl”. Sorry, wrong book. That’s the dustjacket blurb for Coleen (Welcome to My World) McLoughlin, the story of the soon-to-be Mrs Wayne Rooney.

The blurring of political and celebrity memoirs has been deplored. But it’s worse than that. The exploits of “Me and Wayne” are as racy as The Very Hungry Caterpillar when set against the antics of “Me and Tony”. Unprotected sex at Balmoral in the Queen’s spare bedroom, for starters. Such indiscretions make Coleen look like Clarissa Eden.

Cherie has out-Wagged the Wags. Can a pair of mauve rabbit fur boots, a signature fragrance and an advertising contract with George at Asda be far behind? This transition might not matter, but for two things. The first is that her book coincides with a deep unease over what “celebrity culture” is doing to children.

Critics from the Archbishop of Canterbury downwards hold it responsible for some or all of the following: avarice, teenage pregnancy, declining sales of Charles Dickens, happy slapping, anorexia, obesity, chronic depression and the alleged fact that most pre-pubescent girls would sell their steely souls for a Princess Barbie make-up kit right now and a pair of Jimmy Choos in the hereafter. …

While her husband’s Respect agenda was making difficult children worse, she spoke up often against the waste of lives and the over-use of jail. She was an impressive and impassioned campaigner. She still is.

So she must see what a potentially damaging example is being set. Bad role models normally mean cocaine-addled footballers burning £50 notes in nightclubs. Instead, the first prophets of bling are the avatars of an administration that promised social justice and equality.

Don’t blame celebrities when at least some of the political classes look so venal. In comparison, Jordan and Peter Andre, not to mention Tory “toffs”, seem pillars of caring Britain.

Well, I see the point, but if there’s a bright side to setting a damaging example like this, it’s that we get to hear Laura Bush’s stories. …But of course we won’t.