The Bushes, the Clintons and now the Blairs? With just weeks left at number 10, Cherie Blair is speaking out about an issue that has gone nowhere in the past decade under her husband's rule, despite being an influential force behind the scenes.
In what will be interpreted as Mrs Blair's first attempt to stake out her own political credo even before the couple leave Downing Street, the human-rights lawyer has warned that sending mothers to prison increases the risk of their children turning to criminality later in life.Yes, the world is screaming for more of the Blair family so luckily she's there to help. Just a guess, but the British might be even more interested in her using her voice to clean up the human rights catastrophe in Iraq that her husband helped create or even easing up on some of the police state-Big Brother machinery in the UK that Tony added during his term, but that might remind people of everything they detest about the Blair's.
As new government figures showed that about 100 babies a year are born to mothers behind bars, Mrs Blair called for "alternative sentences" for all except the most serious women criminals. Speaking exclusively to The Independent on Sunday, Mrs Blair warned that society will pay the price of removing children from their mothers' care while they are in jail.
