Oh, Sappho

Then, in 1998, Ted Hughes died, and suddenly Duffy's name was one of those being touted as his likely successor as laureate. At the time, she was living with the poet Jackie Kay, and it was reported that she only failed to get the job on account of the fact that "Blair was worried about having a homosexual as poet laureate because of how it might play in middle England."

The true horror that is Tony Blair no doubt will emerge gradually over the next few years. It is not just the war and the lying that led to it, but incidents like this one which will shape his legacy. Of course, it is not that he is at all homophobic: we can be sure that loved chatting with Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Elton John. It is that Blair is utterly lacking in principle, that he would deny a fine poet the honour she deserved because her sexuality might frighten the readers of the Daily Mail. What a horrid little man is he.